Human rights defenders have for decades played a critical role in documenting and seeking justice for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, often risking life and limb in conflict zones and repressive countries in pursuit of justice.
The organization that I co-founded and lead, Fortify Rights, has been on the front lines of this effort. For the past 12 years, we have investigated atrocities in Asia with a focus on mass killings, rape, torture and other crimes in Myanmar. We have routinely shared evidence with the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court (I.C.C.) in The Hague, which is investigating possible crimes against humanity committed against ethnic Rohingya.
Our work is now threatened, not by Myanmar’s brutal military junta, but by the Trump administration.
On Feb. 6, Donald Trump issued an executive order imposing sanctions that target the work of the I.C.C. Coming amid the flurry of contentious executive orders and sharp policy changes initiated by Mr. Trump, this order received relatively little notice. But it strikes at the heart of efforts to pursue international justice over the worst crimes against humanity.
The order singles out the court’s chief prosecutor for sanctions and forbids the provision of “services” to the prosecutor’s office, punishable by fines or even prison. The risk of punishment for sharing evidence, coordinating witness testimony or similar actions involving the court has sent a chill through the human rights field and is already impacting the work of the court and organizations like mine.
This is an unconstitutional infringement on my First Amendment rights as an American, and that’s why I, with the representation of the American Civil Liberties Union, have filed a federal lawsuit to challenge the order.
