Marco Rubio launches campaign to ‘dismantle’ International Criminal Court

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, launched a campaign this week to “dismantle” the International Criminal Court (ICC), claiming the global tribunal interferes with American sovereignty and US military and law enforcement operations.

Announcing the initiative on Monday, Rubio said it would be led by the State Department and involve pressuring other nations to withdraw from the court, particularly those that receive US military protection, security cooperation, or other assistance.

“A wide range of options are available to ensure the ICC is completely and utterly incapable of threatening the US and our people,” State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said. “No diplomatic option will be off-limits in the campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the ICC to Americans.”

In a lengthy op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal, Rubio claimed that the ICC is “backed and run by a powerful network of leftist nongovernmental organisations, smug globalists and hostile Third World governments united by their enmity towards the US”.

In a video on X, Rubio invoked images of US border patrol agents and elected leaders being “dragged” before the international court and tried by judges from around the world.

“If we stand idle, all of them will be at the mercy of foreign judges, thousands of miles away – facing the constant risk of prosecution and even imprisonment for the so-called ‘crime’ of defending their own country,” he wrote.

The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute, the treaty that established the Hague-based court. The ICC prosecutes individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

The International Criminal Court seeks to become the unaccountable arbiter of a new global law — empowered to prosecute and arrest our citizens at will and existentially threaten American sovereignty.

We will teach the ICC the full meaning of American resolve. pic.twitter.com/2egHK1jA98
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) July 13, 2026

The ICC also issued arrest warrants in November 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, despite Israel also not being an ICC signatory.

The administration’s campaign follows years of US opposition to ICC efforts to assert jurisdiction over American personnel. During President Trump’s first term, the court opened an investigation into alleged war crimes in Afghanistan that included US forces, although prosecutors later shifted their focus primarily to alleged crimes committed by the Taliban and ISIS-K.

This general view shows the exterior of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague on March 28, 2026. (Photo by JOHN THYS / AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

Pigott added that the US “does not recognise the authority of international bureaucrats an ocean away who seek to upend America’s 250-year history of self-governance and impose an illegitimate legal order on our sovereign nation,” adding: “America’s sovereignty is and always will be non-negotiable.”

Other options under consideration outlined by the State Department include visa revocations, travel bans for ICC personnel, and expanded sanctions on the court and affiliated organisations.

A State Department official added that the department “will watch with interest which nations join ranks with us against this threat to Americans who are willing to risk their lives to protect others”.

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International Criminal Court

Marco Rubio launches campaign to ‘dismantle’ International Criminal Court

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