UN rights chief urges protection of ICC officials after new US sanctions

The UN human rights chief on Thursday said the imposition by the US of further sanctions on judges and deputy prosecutors of the International Criminal Court (ICC) should prompt the international community to take measures to protect them.

"The relentless intensification of US reprisals against international institutions and their personnel must stop," Volker Turk said in a statement.

He stressed that sanctioning judges and prosecutors at national, regional, or international levels for fulfilling their mandate in accordance with international law standards "is an assault on the rule of law and corrodes justice."

Turk called for a withdrawal of the sanctions against the two judges and two deputy prosecutors named on Wednesday, the four other judges and one prosecutor previously named, as well as the sanction on the special rapporteur appointed by the UN Human Rights Council on the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.

"In the meantime, I call on States to take immediate steps to protect all of them, including by taking measures to encourage corporations operating within their jurisdiction not to implement the sanctions against these individuals," he said.

"States need to step up to defend the institutions they have created to uphold and defend human rights and the rule of law. Those working to document, investigate and prosecute serious violations of international law should not have to work in fear," Turk added.