U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is seriously concerned by the U.S. decision to impose sanctions on International Criminal Court President Tomoko Akane and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye, a U.N. spokesperson said on Wednesday.
– U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio imposed the sanctions on Tuesday in the latest escalation in the Trump administration’s campaign against The Hague-based court, which was established in 2002 by the international community to prosecute war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
– “The Secretary-General expresses serious concern about this designation, as well as the ongoing designation of other International Criminal Court employees,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told a regular U.N. briefing in New York.
– Dujarric said that while the United Nations and the ICC were separate institutions with distinct mandates, the U.N. viewed the court as “a key pillar of international criminal justice.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/uns-guterres-seriously-concerned-by-us-sanctions-icc-2026-08-19