The assault that the US has launched on the international criminal court is not merely an attack on a valuable and necessary institution. It is an attack on human rights themselves, and on the victims who have endured horrific abuses.

The Trump administration is imposing sanctions not on those who commit atrocities, but on those who investigate such crimes. The decision to target members of the international body charged with prosecuting individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide is motivated primarily by the ICC’s investigation into abuses by multiple actors, including the US, in the war in Afghanistan.

“We’re also gravely concerned about the threat the court poses to Israel,” the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, said. The court’s judges are due to rule on whether it has jurisdiction in the occupied territories after Fatou Bensouda, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, said that her preliminary investigation into actions by Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups had satisfied her that war crimes “have been or are being committed”.

The executive order, which Donald Trump signed this month, authorises the freezing of assets and visa bans against court officials, their family members and those who help them. The vagueness of its language and the vindictiveness of this administration suggest it is intended to chill cooperation. It could be used to freeze the assets of a researcher at a human rights group whose work is then used by the court. The administration’s bad faith is underlined by its smearing of the court with accusations of corruption.

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