The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) joined 37 civil society organizations on Wednesday in filing a joint motion before a US federal court to join a lawsuit challenging the sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump’s administration against the International Criminal Court (ICC). 

The signatory organizations argue the sanctions are disrupting the work of human rights groups and cutting off victims’ access to justice, with consequences extending far beyond those directly targeted.

The organization submitted the motion to the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in support of a case brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch, the Open Society Institute and the American Friends Service Committee. The lawsuit challenges the legality of sanctions imposed under Executive Order 14203, which have the ICC president, judges and prosecutor; the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, Francesca Albanese; and three Palestinian human rights organizations: Al-Haq, Al Mezan and the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights.

These sanctions came after the ICC opened an investigation into allegations of war crimes committed by US personnel in Afghanistan, as well as issuing arrest warrants for Israeli officials accused of war crimes in Gaza, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

EIPR and the other signatory organizations argue that the sanctions threaten the networks on which the ICC depends to investigate crimes and secure accountability. Civil society groups connect victims and witnesses with the court, document crimes, support victims’ participation in proceedings and claims for reparations, and provide legal expertise and knowledge of local conditions. This work is particularly important in countries where the ICC has limited access.

The motion also argues that imposing and threatening severe financial and legal penalties on organizations and individuals violates their rights to freedom of expression and association. It notes how organizations placed under sanctions have already lost funding, staff, access to banking services and partnerships, while the threat of penalties has deterred other groups from working with the ICC and damaged cooperation across civil society.

These consequences, the organizations argue, cause measurable and irreparable harm to the victims and survivors who were unable to obtain justice in their own countries, and for whom the ICC can be one of their few remaining avenues for accountability.

Besides the 38 organizations, the secretariat of the Coalition for the ICC assisted with submitting the motion, which used its report, Criminalising Accountability: The US lawfare against the international justice system, as a key reference. The signatory organizations are represented by Mascarenhas Law PLLC.