The operational future of the International Criminal Court has been placed under strain by an announcement from the United States, and a group of eight States Parties to the Rome Statute has now set out, in a joint statement, how they intend to keep the institution functioning. The statement, issued by the Foreign Ministers of Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and the UK, addresses both the threat posed by impending American sanctions and the practical preparations the Court has already made to absorb them.
At the centre of the statement is a question of delivery: whether the Court can continue to carry out its mandate under the Rome Statute if sanctions are put into effect. The signatories note with appreciation the work undertaken by the Court to prepare for such measures, an acknowledgment that the institution has been planning for disruption rather than simply responding to it. They underline their unwavering support in enabling the Court to continue operating in those circumstances.
The ministers are direct about what the sanctions would mean on the ground. If implemented, they say, the measures will have a significant impact on the Court’s work, on its dedicated staff and on the families of those staff members. The statement frames the Court’s personnel as the operational core of international accountability, people who work every day to bring those accused of the most serious international crimes to justice and to support their victims. Any interruption to that work, the signatories suggest, lands first on the individuals doing it.
The eight governments position themselves as committed supporters of the Court and as the parties responsible for sustaining its day-to-day functioning. They reaffirm their continued and unwavering support for the independence, impartiality and integrity of the ICC, and they state plainly that they regret and strongly disagree with the announcement of sanctions by the United States. The framing throughout is institutional rather than rhetorical: the concern is less with the politics of the dispute than with whether the machinery of the Court, its mandate, its staff and its procedures, can keep running.
Looking ahead, the signatories describe a timetable for that work. They say they remain united in their support for the ICC and committed to engaging in constructive and inclusive dialogue with non-States Parties as they prepare for the Assembly of States Parties in December 2026. That gathering is presented as the next fixed point in the effort to secure the Court’s operations, with outreach to states outside the Rome Statute system forming part of the preparation rather than an afterthought.
The statement closes on the same operational note that runs through it. The ministers commit to continuing to work together to support the Court’s vital work, to uphold the rules-based international system and to advance accountability. Read as a whole, the document is less a declaration of principle than a status report on an institution under pressure: a court that has begun preparing for sanctions, a group of States Parties pledging the support needed to keep it delivering on its mandate, and a scheduled assembly in December 2026 at which that effort will be taken forward. What the sanctions would actually disrupt, and how well the Court’s preparations hold up, remains the practical question the signatories have chosen to address.