Open Society Joins Legal Challenge to U.S. Sanctions Targeting the International Criminal Court

Today, the Open Society Foundations joined the American Friends Service Committee, Human Rights Watch, and the Center for Constitutional Rights in challenging the constitutionality and legality of Executive Order 14203, which authorized sanctions on International Criminal Court (ICC) officials and others who work to prevent, investigate, and punish war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. The order is an attack on fundamental rights, including First Amendment protections of freedoms of speech and association. It creates a chilling effect on lawyers, researchers, advocates, and human rights organizations seeking justice for victims of the world's gravest crimes. By imposing sanctions on international judges, prosecutors, and human rights organizations, and those who cooperate with them, the order is also an assault on the rule of law.

We are also concerned by how these sanctions were imposed, and how they are an abuse of executive power and sanctions authority. The Administration invoked emergency powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act-usually reserved for terrorists, war criminals, and corrupt oligarchs-and turned those powers against an independent international court and human rights groups that stand for justice and accountability.

The ICC is a court of last resort for the most heinous crimes. It only investigates and prosecutes war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and the crime of aggression. The court's members voluntarily grant it jurisdiction, and the court only acts when national authorities have failed to do so themselves.

For many victims, it is the last avenue for justice left. They include Afghan women and girls facing the Taliban's persecution, Ukrainians facing Russia's war of aggression, Palestinian victims of Israel's war in Gaza, and the people of Sudan targeted by all sides in a brutal war. When cooperation with the court is made a punishable offense, that path is blocked.

Open Society stands for the protections and freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. We are asking the federal court to ensure these protections and freedoms are upheld in line with the rule of law.