ICC ends AXA insurance contract amid US sanctions threat

The International Criminal Court has ended its health and life insurance contract with French insurer AXA, effective immediately, amid mounting US sanctions pressure against the Hague-based court, first reported by the Financial Times on Thursday.

“Axa and the Court have decided by mutual agreement to terminate the contractual relationship,” an ICC spokesperson told Reuters. The court said it would use a new insurer but declined to name the firm.

AXA cited the danger of US sanctions applying beyond America’s borders. “It is a complex and sensitive case given the risks arising from the extraterritorial application of US sanctions,” it told the Financial Times.

The split follows months of talks in which the two sides could find no workaround short of a blocking statute — a European mechanism shielding EU firms from third-country sanctions, Al Jazeera reported.

The move follows US President Donald Trump’s attacks on the court. At last week’s UN General Assembly, he called the ICC “evil” and “a rogue institution” and urged countries to leave it; the only one to do so is Naoero, the Pacific island nation formerly known as Nauru.

The Trump administration has already sanctioned more than a dozen ICC judges and prosecutors, including the court’s president in August, according to the Wall Street Journal. Washington argues the ICC oversteps its authority by claiming jurisdiction over citizens of countries, including the US and Israel, that have not ratified its founding treaty, the Rome Statute.