President’s Statement Protesting the Sanctions Imposed by the Government of the United States on Judge Tomoko Akane, President of the International Criminal Court, and Another, and Calling for a Resolute Response to Safeguard the Independence and Impartiality of the Court

 

On August 18, 2026, the Government of the United States announced that it had designated two individuals — Judge Tomoko Akane, President of the International Criminal Court (the “ICC”), and Mr. Abdoulaye Seye, a Senior Trial Lawyer — as targets of sanctions under Executive Order 14203 of February 6, 2025. As a result, their assets in the United States are blocked, they are barred from entry into the United States, and they are effectively cut off from the U.S. financial system. Secretary of State Rubio is reported to have cited, as grounds for the sanctions, their involvement in the prosecution of nationals of States that have not consented to the jurisdiction of the ICC, and to have denounced the ICC as a “corrupt and fatally politicized supranational court.”

The Aichi Bar Association strongly protests these measures, which target Judge Akane — a judge and the head of an international criminal judicial institution — and Mr. Seye — a legal professional engaged in prosecutorial work before the Court — by reason of the performance of their official duties.

1. The Mission of the ICC and This Association’s Previous Statement

The ICC is the world’s first permanent international criminal judicial institution, established in order to bring an end to the culture of impunity with respect to the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression — the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole (the “core crimes”). These crimes frequently involve the participation of States and are difficult to punish before the domestic courts of the territorial State. It is the mission of the ICC to preserve the peace and security of humankind as a whole and the dignity of the human person by holding individuals criminally responsible on the basis of law and evidence, and by shedding light on the suffering of victims.

On March 7, 2025, this Association issued a President’s Statement Calling for the Independence and Impartiality of the International Criminal Court to Be Protected, in which it called upon the Government of Japan to declare that it respects the decisions of the ICC as independent judicial determinations, and to make clear its opposition to conduct that withholds cooperation from the ICC and to the imposition of sanctions. The situation has nonetheless not improved. The sanctions have been extended successively — from the Prosecutor to the Deputy Prosecutors, and then to the judges — and have now reached the President of the Court herself.

2. Grounds for This Protest

(1) The measures constitute a grave infringement of the independence of the judiciary.

Judges are to exercise their powers independently, following their conscience and bound only by the law. If a judge may be subjected to detriments such as the freezing of assets or a ban on entry by reason of a judicial decision or of the performance of other judicial duties, that judge will fear the consequences that the content of a given decision may bring upon them personally, and will no longer be able to exercise judicial power independently. Moreover, the effects of these sanctions are not confined to the territory of the United States. Being cut off from the international financial system undermines the very basis on which a judge sitting in The Hague carries out their work. These measures therefore do not merely impose a detriment on a judge as an individual; they operate as a coercive force that obstructs the discharge of judicial responsibilities itself. This denies the very core of judicial independence, and can never be permitted, whether in a domestic judicial system or in an international one.

(2) The measures constitute an act of intimidation against the freedom of legal professionals to perform their duties.

It cannot be overlooked that, alongside a judge, a Senior Trial Lawyer engaged in prosecutorial work before the Court has been made the target of sanctions. These measures function as a threat — a message that “you may be next” — directed not only at the judges and staff of the ICC, but also at defence counsel, legal representatives of victims, witnesses, and the governments, businesses and civil society of every country that cooperates with the ICC. That legal professionals should suffer detriment at the hands of State power by reason of the performance of their professional duties is a matter that attorneys, whose mission is the protection of fundamental human rights and the realization of social justice, can never disregard.

(3) The measures invite the revival of the culture of impunity.

These measures are directed not merely at imposing detriments on individual judges and others, but at depriving the ICC of its very capacity to function. Should the ICC cease to function, the international community will leave the most serious crimes unaddressed and will once again tolerate a culture of impunity. Some States Parties have already indicated an intention to withdraw. What is now at stake is the continued existence of the international criminal justice system as a whole.

3. Requests to the Government of Japan

These measures constitute an attack on the system of international criminal justice itself — a system that the international community has built over more than half a century — irrespective of the nationality of those targeted. That said, Japan is a State Party to the Rome Statute, and has supported the work of the ICC as its largest contributor of assessed contributions and as a State that has continuously produced judges of the Court. The Constitution of Japan declares in its Preamble that the Japanese people “desire to occupy an honored place in an international society striving for the preservation of peace, and the banishment of tyranny and slavery, oppression and intolerance for all time from the earth.” To support the work of the ICC and to oppose improper pressure brought to bear against it is a responsibility of Japan consistent with that constitutional ideal. Precisely because Japan maintains a close relationship with the United States, candidly seeking the correction of these measures is the responsible course of action.

Accordingly, this Association calls upon the Government of Japan:

(1) to lodge a clear protest against these measures and to demand that the Government of the United States withdraw them immediately;

(2) to respect the decisions of the ICC as independent judicial determinations, and to state clearly, in its external relations, that Japan continues to support the work of the ICC and to cooperate with it;

(3) to coordinate immediately with like-minded States Parties and to take joint action, including the issuance of a joint statement condemning these measures;

(4) to provide the practical support necessary — with respect to travel, financial transactions and otherwise — so that President Akane may continue to discharge her duties in full; and, in addition, to provide the information and support necessary to ensure that financial institutions and others in Japan do not respond excessively out of undue fear of the risk of so-called secondary sanctions; and

(5) to undertake promptly a concrete study of legal measures to protect Japanese nationals and Japanese legal entities that cooperate with the ICC, given that United States sanctions may extend detriments, such as the blocking of assets in the United States, to individuals and legal entities of third countries that have dealings with a designated person, so that such persons do not suffer detriment through the extraterritorial application of sanctions.

4. Conclusion

As a professional body of legal practitioners whose mission is the protection of fundamental human rights and the realization of social justice, this Association hereby reaffirms that it will broadly support the work of the ICC, and will spare no form of cooperation, so that the independence and impartiality of the Court may be preserved and the rule of law in the international community upheld.

 

August 24, 2026

Aichi Bar Association

Tatsunobu Hasegawa, President