Human Rights Watch and three other advocacy groups have sued the Trump administration to challenge its campaign against the International Criminal Court (ICC), arguing that sanctions against ICC judges and prosecutors are undermining the ability to prosecute people responsible for humanity’s worst crimes.

Background

The complaint, filed in the Southern District of New York, says that President Donald Trump’s executive order last year targeting the Hague-based criminal court and the U.S. sanctions issued against a U.N. human rights expert and three Palestinian rights groups represent a “blatantly illegal attack on international justice and should be struck down.”

The lawsuit is the latest example of organizations pushing back on what they call the Trump administration’s efforts to undermine international law and prevent efforts to combat impunity by governments around the world.

Constitutional Concerns

The groups assert that the financial and legal penalties against the ICC have forced them to “curtail a wide range of human rights and legal work in violation of their First and Fifth Amendment rights under the US Constitution and under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

Other organizations joining the lawsuit are the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, and the Open Society Institute.

Original reporting: Alexandria, VA News – WTOP News — read the source article.