US president Donald Trump is once again reportedly targeting the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, threatening a new round of sanctions that would this time apply not only to individual staff members but to the institution as a whole, Reuters reported this week.

If sanctions are imposed, the court is already preparing contingency plans, with support from the Netherlands, broadcaster NOS said on Friday.

US media reported this week that Trump is demanding changes to the ICC’s founding document, the Rome Statute, which allows the court to prosecute heads of state.

According to the reports, Trump wants this provision altered to prevent himself from becoming a potential target. If the ICC refuses, new sanctions would follow.

“Together with all member states, we are of course urging the US not to do this,” caretaker foreign minister David van Weel told current affairs show Nieuwsuur. “But if it does happen, we will look at how we can withstand those sanctions.”

At the top of the priority list is moving essential services used by the ICC to non-American companies. If the Trump administration sanctions the entire court, US firms would be barred from doing business with it.

“That could mean people can no longer use banking services or email programmes,” Van Weel said. “Wherever American services are currently used, we will have to look for alternatives.”

As host country of the ICC, the Netherlands has a responsibility to ensure the court can continue its work, and Van Weel said preparations have been under way for some time. “But of course we hope they will not be needed,” he said.

Trump has previously imposed sanctions on the ICC’s prosecutor, two deputy prosecutors, the UN special rapporteur for Palestine and six judges.

One of those sanctioned is Canadian ICC judge Kimberly Prost, who told Nieuwsuur she feels the impact of the sanctions on a daily basis.

“You immediately lose access to your credit cards,” she said. “I wake up in panic thinking: how will I pay for basic services? Everyday things like ordering a taxi, buying a concert ticket or shopping online become extremely difficult.”

War crimes

The ICC prosecutes suspects accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. It currently has outstanding arrest warrants for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Galant over the use of starvation as a weapon in Gaza. The court previously examined alleged war crimes by the US military in Afghanistan.

The ICC has 125 member states. Israel and the US do not recognise the court and argue that they therefore cannot be investigated or prosecuted.

Prost was sanctioned for authorising the Afghanistan investigation, while other judges were targeted over the arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Galant. The ICC was able to pursue those cases because Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories are ICC members.