The US imposed sanctions this week on two judges, Canada’s Kimberly Prost and France’s Nicolas Guillou, and two prosecutors, Fiji’s Nazhat Shameem Khan and Senegal’s Mame Mandiaye Niang, in response to the ICC issuing arrest warrants in November against Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, and to Judge Prost’s work on an investigation into US personnel in Afghanistan.
The ICC has also issued arrest warrants against three Hamas leaders who have since died.
Law Society president Richard Atkinson said: ‘The sanctions against ICC legal professionals not only violate their rights but also threaten to undermine access to justice for victims of crimes under international law.
‘The legal profession upholds democracy and the rule of law—and when it is threatened, it is our duty to ensure that justice prevails. We stand with the ICC, fellow groups of legal professional bodies and lawyers’ rights organisations in condemnation of the US sanctions against ICC personnel, which represent a flagrant disregard for the rule of law and justice worldwide.’
The ICC’s oversight body, the Assembly of States Parties, condemned this week’s sanctions as ‘regrettable attempts to impede the Court and its personnel in the exercise of their independent judicial functions.
‘We continue to object to such unilateral measures firmly and unequivocally. They represent an affront to the independence of the Court and the integrity of the Rome Statute system…. In these challenging times, the international community must reaffirm its collective commitment to the rule of law and to ensuring that no one is above accountability’.
