Human rights organizations breaking ties with ICC in The Hague over U.S. sanctions

At least 20 human rights organizations have either ended or drastically reduced their cooperation with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague due to sanctions against the court implemented by the United States, Investico and Süddeutsche Zeitung reported after surveying 100 such organizations.

The human rights organizations, including large organizations like Human Rights Watch, have quietly cut ties with the ICC due to sanctions imposed by U.S. president Donald Trump against 13 ICC staff members and three Palestinian organizations. The recently announced sanctions targeting the ICC as a whole will take effect in five months.

Human rights organizations play a crucial role in new criminal cases. They are often first at the scene, providing eyewitness testimony and novel forms of evidence. They also have expertise in local laws.

"They are a very important part of our work," former Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who served at the ICC until 2021, told Investico. "They do not conduct investigations on our behalf, but they do provide us with leads, which help us find ways to substantiate evidence."

Several organizations told Investico that their American funders have explicitly prohibited them from working with the ICC. But European organizations that do not fall directly under the scope of the sanctions are also halting their cooperation. Pim Kraan, director of Save the Children Nederland, told Investico that the organization is struggling to find a viable way to continue working with the ICC. A German NGO added: "We cannot accept the risk of being sanctioned ourselves, which would jeopardize all our other work."

As the country hosting the ICC, the Netherlands is obliged to protect the Court’s operations from “interference of any kind.” According to Investico, this also entails a responsibility toward human rights organizations.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs sees it differently. When asked, a spokesperson told Investico that the Netherlands bears “no special responsibility as a host country” to protect NGOs from the consequences of sanctions. The Netherlands prefers to speak out against the sanctions collectively, for example, through the European Union.

According to Investico, the 20 organizations that have confirmed stopping or cutting back on their cooperation with the ICC are likely only a fraction of the total number. Many NGOs refused to speak on the record.