This event will be streamed on Wednesday, December 2nd, at 7:00 pm CET
This event, presented by AUR's International Relations & Global Politics program, will examine the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The speakers will be David Donat Cattin and Antonio Marchesi.
Established in 2002, the ICC is an independent judicial institution dedicated to fighting impunity for the gravest international crimes. 123 countries are currently members of the ICC, granting the institution the authority to investigate and prosecute crimes committed by their nationals or by anyone on their territory.
The U.S. is not one of these 123 countries. Since voting against the ICC’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute, in 1998, the relationship between the U.S. and the ICC has been turbulent: the Bush administration was initially hostile towards the institution before easing into a more cooperative approach, one that was further pursued and amplified under the Obama administration.
However, this relationship has deteriorated drastically under the Trump administration, with the U.S. government declaring that it would no longer cooperate with the ICC and threatening retaliatory steps against ICC staff and member countries should the court investigate US or allied country citizens.
In response to the institution’s investigations into whether US forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan, the US imposed sanctions on senior officials in the ICC, including chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. These sanctions take the form of a freeze on assets held in the U.S. or subject to U.S. law and a ban on entering the US. The sanctions were immediately denounced by the court, the United Nations and human rights advocates.
David Donat Cattin
Secretary-General, Parliamentarians for Global Action (PGA)
Adjunct Professor of International Law, Center for Global Affairs, New York University (NYU)
Antonio Marchesi
Associate Professor of International Law, University of Teramo (Italy)
Adjunct Professor of International Law of War and Peace and International Human Rights, The American University of Rome
Former President, Amnesty International Italy
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