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The International Criminal Court (ICC) has overhauled key parts of its operations to protect itself from potentially sweeping U.S. sanctions, including replacing Microsoft software and making contingency arrangements for banking, insurance and employee salaries, according to the Financial Times.
Deputy Prosecutor Nazhat Shameem Khan told the FT in an interview published Friday that the Hague-based tribunal had spent the past year preparing for sanctions that could target the institution as a whole.
“We have done a lot of work to ensure that the court is buffered from the impacts of any potential sanctions in the future,” Khan told the newspaper.
The court has replaced Microsoft Office software with openDesk, a German open-source alternative, as part of efforts to reduce its dependence on U.S.-linked technology, Khan said.
It has also developed workarounds for health insurance and banking and has been paying employees several months in advance to limit potential disruption to payroll if additional U.S. restrictions are imposed, according to the FT.
The preparations come as U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration considers a significant expansion of its measures against the court.
Reuters reported earlier this week that the administration had prepared sanctions against the ICC as an institution and planned to announce them soon, citing two sources familiar with the matter.
Washington has previously sanctioned individual ICC judges and prosecutors but has so far stopped short of placing the entire court under sanctions.
Such institution-wide sanctions could prohibit U.S. citizens and companies from providing funds, goods or services to the ICC without authorization from the U.S. Treasury Department.
They could affect the court’s access to banking, insurance and technology services and complicate routine financial transactions and contracts with outside providers.
Banks and other companies outside the United States could also limit dealings with the ICC because of their exposure to the U.S. financial system.
Khan has been under U.S. sanctions since August 2025.
Washington sanctioned Khan, fellow Deputy Prosecutor Mame Mandiaye Niang and ICC judges Nicolas Yann Guillou and Kimberly Prost over cases involving U.S. and Israeli nationals.
The measures block any property or interests they hold under U.S. jurisdiction and restrict transactions involving them.
The ICC rejected those measures at the time, saying they targeted the independence of the court and its officials.
The United States is not a member of the ICC, which was established in 2002 to prosecute individuals accused of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity when national judicial systems are unable or unwilling to act.
Washington’s latest pressure campaign has focused in part on the court’s cases involving Israel, including arrest warrants issued for Israeli leaders, as well as an earlier investigation involving alleged crimes by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Trump stepped up his criticism of the court at the U.N. General Assembly this week, calling Tuesday for all nations that are part of the ICC to quit the body.
“The United States is equally opposed to the out-of-control institution known as the International Criminal Court,” Trump said at the United Nations.
“I call on all nations that are members of the ICC to officially resign from this rogue institution immediately,” he added.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has vowed to dismantle the ICC “brick by brick,” describing the court as an “intolerable threat to U.S. sovereignty.”
Washington has imposed a series of sanctions on ICC officials, angered by the court’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close U.S. ally.
Trump said Washington would “never allow U.S. service members or anyone else to be investigated or given show trials by an anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction over us.”
The United States has never ratified the Rome Statute that established the court. Israel, Russia and China are also not members.
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