The Trump administration’s campaign against the International Criminal Court is a direct attack on accountability. Australia must not abandon its Rome Statute obligations.
Some commentators around the world think Marco Rubio, the corrupt Trump Administration’s Secretary of State, is slightly less unhinged than the President and his acolytes. One observer, Nicole Russell, writing in USA Today earlier this year said of ‘Little Marco’, that he’s ‘intelligent, articulate and knows where he stands on key issues.’
That assumption is wrong. Rubio is a man who wants to destroy the International Criminal Court (the ICC), persecute its officers, and force allies of Washington to join in its war on human rights. He is an enabler of human rights abuse – the man who wants to eliminate accountability for American leaders, military and civilians.
On Monday Rubio’s team issued a statement announcing ‘a sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court to US sovereignty.’ The campaign ‘will feature a whole-of-government response to systematically disable the ICC’s ability to operate, target American servicemen or officials, or otherwise threaten American sovereignty.’
In other words, if you are in the US government and committing war crimes, aiding Israel’s genocide of Palestinians, or facilitating crimes against humanity, you won’t see a jail cell even if the evidence against you is overwhelming.
If Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping or the smarter-than-Trump Iranian leadership put out a statement such as this, western politicians, media and commentators would be outraged. They would fulminate about universal human rights and that China, Iran and Russia are rogue states. But because this is Washington, the response is muted at best in Paris, London, Berlin and don’t forget Canberra.
The Trump Administration has already made life difficult for the ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan and other officials. Since early 2025, in response to the ICC opening investigations into Israeli (and Hamas) actions in Gaza, the White House ordered sanctions, which include freezing assets and travel bans. That has now been extended to more officials of the ICC.
The US, like Israel, has a long history of hostility to the Rome Statute and the ICC. The former is enforced by the latter. The US signed the Statute in 2000 but President Clinton never sought ratification from the Senate. Since then the US has said it will not ratify. Israel signed in 1998 but withdrew its signature in 2002.
Extraordinary that two nations which love to proclaim they are liberal democracies and committed to human rights hide their citizens and leaders from being held accountable for grievous human rights abuses.
Australia is a Rome Statute signatory and the Statute is incorporated into domestic law. But the pressure will now be on it to stand firm because Rubio’s announcement this week says that other actions in its anti-ICC crusade include ‘[d]iplomatic calls from the Secretary of State, Deputy Secretary, ambassadors, and other members of senior leadership to foreign nations highlighting the abuses of the ICC and the risks posed to Americans and other nations urging them to withdraw from the ICC.’
And given that Australia ‘partner[s] with American law enforcement and the US military’ and has the benefit ‘of the US security umbrella’ it will be ‘called upon to reject the ICC’s purported authority to prosecute American officials and servicemen.’
So imagine this scenario. US military personnel who are subject to ICC arrest warrants come to Canberra to visit their chums in the Department of Defence. Will Australia fulfil its obligation to ensure their arrest?
Sadly, given the default position with Washington adopted by Australian governments is to give it whatever it wants or to do as it is told, then the pressure over the ICC could well see this country refuse to meet its Rome Statute obligations.
The foreign and defence policy establishment think tanks in Australia like ASPI, the Lowy Institute, ANU outfits and others should be outraged at Rubio’s intent. These groups constantly berate China, Russia and Iran as enemies of the western order. So can we hope that they show some intellectual consistency and condemn this brazen attack on the rule of law by their American friends?
And what about the reliable pro Washington scribes in The Australian, the Nine newspapers and on the ABC? They too must say under Trump the US cannot claim any moral superiority.
In Tehran, Beijing and Moscow they rightly call out the double standards of the west and we take no notice. But we should because the Trump Administration is committed to ensuring that its military can kill civilians, bomb hospitals, abuse women and children and starve the population if that fits the bill.
The Rubio action is yet another – how many more do we need? – reason for Australia to delink from the declining and venal influence of the US around the world.
Greg Barns SC is a former National President of the Australian Lawyers Alliance