The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, strongly condemned on Thursday the new sanctions imposed by the United States against judges and assistant prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC). It called on the international community to take immediate measures to protect the persons concerned. “The incessant intensification of American reprisals against international institutions and their personnel must cease”, declared M. Turk in an official communiqué.. According to him, sanctioning judges and prosecutors for having fulfilled their mandate in accordance with international law “constitutes an attack on the rule of law and endangers justice”. The High Commissioner urged Washington to lift the sanctions against two judges and two assistant prosecutors recently targeted, as well as those already imposed on four other judges, a prosecutor and the Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In anticipation of this withdrawal, it asked the Member States of the UN to adopt measures to protect the magistrates concerned. “Governments must also encourage companies operating on their territory not to apply these sanctions”, he insisted. Volker Türk also recalled that international institutions such as the ICC play an essential role in the defence of human rights and the rule of law: “Those who seek to document, investigate and prosecute serious violations of international law should not have to work in fear. ”
The UN High Commissioner denounces the American reprisals against the personnel of the ICC
