The Court under siege
The International Criminal Court under pressure from several sides, in six pieces: the warrants nobody executes, Moscow's convictions of its judges, the states that leave, Trump's appeal at the UN, the US sanctions against the whole institution. At the end, an opinion.
Putin unarrested in Mongolia (2024) and Tajikistan (2025); Netanyahu unarrested in Hungary (2025). Same ICC warrants, the same single consequence: a referral to the Assembly of States Parties with no coercive power.
On 12 December 2025 a Moscow court convicted the ICC's chief prosecutor and eight judges in absentia over the warrant against Putin. Eleven months earlier, Washington had chosen sanctions for the same reason, against a different warrant: Netanyahu. Two powers, two tools, the same conduct.
A drone kills 17 civilians at a Niger market: a possible war crime. Niger leaves the ICC while the US and Italy continue military cooperation.
Trump asks every ICC member state to withdraw and prepares sanctions against the Court itself. Only one country follows. Two days later, Netanyahu addresses the UN under an arrest warrant.
On 9 October the United States sanctioned the International Criminal Court as an institution, leaving it six months to operate: a condition placed on its 125 member states.
The International Criminal Court has no police force, and its warrants often stay on paper. So why is the United States sanctioning it? Because what stays on the record carries weight.