Hague Group warns institution-wide U.S. sanctions could immobilize ICC

On September 25, 2026, South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola told a UN General Assembly side event that threatened U.S. sanctions against the International Criminal Court as an institution could fundamentally disrupt its operations. The warning followed sanctions on individual ICC officials and focused on the potential reach to banks, insurers and technology suppliers serving the Court; no institution-wide designation had been imposed at the time of the report. Service providers and European counterparties should map direct and indirect dependencies now because secondary-sanctions exposure could collide with host-state, EU and contractual obligations to support the Court. The wider convergence problem is acute: a sanctions program aimed at an international tribunal would turn ordinary infrastructure and payment services into a test of competing public-law duties.