UN Human Rights Council, Geneva, 24 March 2026
States, UN experts and civil society organisations convened at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva yesterday, issuing a united call for concrete measures to protect the International Criminal Court (ICC) from escalating U.S. coercive measures.
Hosted by Colombia, Palestine, Slovenia, Spain and South Africa, and organised by No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ), the Coalition for the ICC (CICC), Al-Haq, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), the high-level event warned that U.S. sanctions are crippling the international justice system.
These sanctions target ICC judges, deputy prosecutors, UN mandate holders and leading Palestinian human rights organisations — Al-Haq, Al Mezan, PCHR and, under a separate sanctions programme, Addameer — and have profound, immediate consequences.
Al-Haq’s Head of Legal Research and Advocacy Susan Power reported that many of their work streams ground to a halt. Banks have frozen accounts, funding has collapsed overnight, and staff have had to resign.
UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Ms Francesca Albanese, described the impact of sanctions as impairing. “You cannot function as an individual anymore. You are a dependent. I have less autonomy than my 13 year old child… just for writing reports to the United Nations.”
“We are talking about human rights defenders treated like perpetrators of mass atrocities, leading companies, individuals and NGOs to de-risking and over-complying, and cutting off their services,” highlighted Ms Zoé Paris, Advocacy Coordinator of the CICC.
Speakers stressed that these constraints are not merely administrative, but pose a broader threat to the rights of millions of victims and survivors of international crimes, and to the rule of law itself.
Mr Issam Younis, Director of Al Mezan, asserted that sanctioning organisations which work to support accountability “strikes at the very foundation of the rule of law.” “This is the new world order,” said Mr Raji Sourani, Founding Director of PCHR. “States who still believe in the rule of law must stand and defend these principles.”
The event culminated in a formal Call to Action urging ICC States Parties to adopt blocking statutes neutralising extraterritorial U.S. sanctions, provide direct support to designated individuals and organisations, and affirm the inviolability of the Rome Statute system.
For media enquiries: Keila McFarland Dias, Communications and Campaign Officer, Coalition for the International Criminal Court — mcfarlanddias@coalitionfortheicc.org | No Peace Without Justice — press@npwj.org
