Australia providing 'extraordinary' support to ICC staff amid Trump sanctions

A top International Criminal Court (ICC) official says Australia and other countries are providing "extraordinary" support to help protect the court's staff from the Trump administration's latest sanctions assault, while vowing that the court will not be deterred from pressing on with its work.ICC deputy prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan, a senior court official who has already been personally sanctioned by the US, is visiting Canberra and Brisbane this week for talks with jurists and officials from across Australia and the Pacific.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has labelled the ICC a "rogue court" and has vowed to demolish it "brick by brick".The Trump administration has rolled out successive waves of sanctions against the court, including new institutional sanctions designed to cripple the ICC by cutting it off from financial and support services.The latest sanctions will freeze the court's assets in the US, as well as block financial transactions and IT agreements the ICC has with US companies.Time to step upMs Khan told the ABC that while the sanctions had already created some difficulties, the ICC was heartened that many countries had lent support — some in public and others via "quiet diplomacy behind closed doors".Nazhat Shameem Khan says countries need to work to protect the ICC. (Supplied: ICC)"I think this is the time when states must step up and support this process [of multilateralism] and support the institutions which are under attack," Ms Khan said.The deputy prosecutor said the court was determined to protect its staff from the financial impacts of the move, and was adopting new systems to circumvent the sanctions and allow it to keep running."We have been working very hard to insulate the court as well as ensuring that our work continues," she said."Our main priority is that we continue to serve the victims who come to the court, telling us their stories and wanting their voices to be heard."The ICC drew furious condemnation from the US and Israel when it announced it would pursue Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity.More recently it unsealed arrest warrants for several major Taliban leaders in Afghanistan for their policies persecuting women and girls.Marco Rubio has been highly critical of the ICC. (Reuters: Eric Lee, file photo)Sanctions effect hard to predictThe latest wave of sanctions announced by the Trump administration on October 9 is meant to target the ICC rather than the large cohort of lawyers and staff who work for it. The measures include a 180-day grace period before they are fully implemented.But Ms Khan said the impact of sanctions was unpredictable and the court could not know at this stage how many of its staff might struggle with banking or other services as a result."We don't know which institutions will over-comply," she said.The Australian government copped criticism from international lawyers who accused it of moving "sluggishly" after it joined a statement criticising the most recent sanctions about three days after it was first issued.But Ms Khan praised the response from Canberra, saying its public statement of support behind the court was valuable.She said Australian officials in the Netherlands had provided "visible" and "really satisfactory" help to Australians working for the court, including on ensuring they could keep accessing banking and financial services.The deputy prosecutor said the ICC and other multilateral institutions had to hold the line in the face of growing pressure from the Trump administration and other international forces."Multilateralism gives everyone a voice," she said."Any attempt … to reverse all the work that has gone behind the rules-based order must be a negative step for the world, and the international community."She said the court had enormous relevance to the Pacific, pointing to a 2024 proposal by Vanuatu, co-sponsored by Fiji and Samoa, calling for ecocide to be recognised as an independent international crime.