The Bar Human Rights Committee of England and Wales (BHRC) and the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) have written to the US president Joe Biden urging him to withdraw measures against top officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The sanctions and visa restrictions were introduced by the Trump administration last year.

They affected the ICC’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, as well as the head of the Office of the Prosecutor’s Jurisdiction, Complementarity, and Cooperation Division, Phakiso Mochochoko.

The measures were taken after the court, based in The Hague, backed an investigation into whether US forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan.

Set up in 2002, the ICC investigates war crimes and genocide, but the US has never signed the treaty which established it.

'Improper interference'

The two groups of lawyers are urging Biden to rescind Executive Order 13928, which was signed by former president Donald Trump in July last year.

In their letter, the BHRC and IBAHRI welcome the US Department of State’s announcement on 26 January that it will “thoroughly review” the sanctions against the ICC officials.

They point out, however, that the sanctions have not yet been revoked.

“BHRC and IBAHRI stress our position that the imposition of coercive measures against Ms Bensouda and Mr Mochochoko, and any other ICC official or person who engages with the court, constitutes a severe and improper interference with the independence of the ICC, and gravely undermines the rule of law,” they say.