Two U.S. nonprofit organizations have sued the Trump administration over sanctions targeted at the International Criminal Court (ICC), or fines that violate Americans’ constitutional rights to participate in human rights work “related to Palestine.”
Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) and Taxpayers Alliance Against Genocide (TAAG), organizations that promote democracy and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa, filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court in Manhattan, seeking to block the Trump administration from using an executive order “to prevent U.S. citizens from cooperating with investigations of human rights violations by the United States and Israel.” According to statements released by both organizations. These measures “prevent the defense of Palestine,” the statement added.
An executive order issued by U.S. President Donald Trump in February 2025 authorizes punitive measures, including sanctions and bans from entering the United States, against ICC officials for what his administration called “unlawful and baseless actions targeting Israel, a close U.S. ally.”
Although several other challenges to ICC sanctions have been filed, this case is the first aimed at preventing Trump-appointed officials from using sanctions law to “prohibit American persons from supporting ICC investigations into U.S.-Israeli atrocity crimes or from cooperating with (United Nations Human Rights Envoy Francesca Albanese) or sanctioned Palestinian NGOs,” the group’s statement said.
These sanctions “unconstitutionally restrict Americans from seeking justice for Palestine before the ICC and from cooperating with designated human rights defenders solely to urge the ICC to investigate Israeli and American persons,” the statement added.
CNN has reached out to the US State Department and White House for comment. The United States is not a member of the court. The United States signed the treaty establishing the court in 2000, but did not ratify it.
Over the past 18 months, the Trump administration has imposed a series of sanctions punishing organizations and individuals it says are seeking accountability for Israeli actions in Gaza, including those under the jurisdiction of courts based in the Netherlands. The movement escalated further on Monday when Secretary of State Marco Rubio vowed to use “all tools at our government’s disposal” to “dismantle the ICC piece by piece, if necessary.”
In September, the State Department imposed sanctions on three Palestinian human rights groups, Al-Haq, Almezan Center for Human Rights, and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), which had asked the ICC to investigate and arrest Israeli leaders over accusations of war crimes in Gaza.
Last year, the United States also imposed sanctions against Italian human rights expert Albanese, who will serve as UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories from 2022, as well as ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan and four other judges.
During his first term, President Trump targeted the ICC for seeking an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by US forces in Afghanistan.
Earlier this week, DAWN Executive Director Omar Shakir told CNN that the Trump administration’s efforts to scrutinize the ICC and other accountability institutions highlight how such efforts “go far beyond undermining[the ICC]and undermine the very constitutional right of Americans to advocate for justice.”
Shakir spoke about the lawsuit, drawing parallels between the Trump administration’s foreign and domestic policies and warning that the impact of ICC sanctions “will also weaken the ability of Americans to petition their own government.”
“I think this executive order also highlights the Trump administration’s widespread disdain and distrust of civil society, human rights organizations, journalists, and truth-seekers,” Shakir said on Tuesday.
“Our hope is that this case will embolden American human rights organizations to resume their important work seeking justice and aligning with human rights defenders on the ground who risk their lives every day,” he added.
