Judge did not reconsider working at ICC despite sanctions

“Not at all. Not once. Not for a single second.”

Kimberly Prost, a Canadian judge placed under US sanctions, says she has never wavered in her decision to serve at the International Criminal Court (ICC), despite finding herself effectively cut off from much of the global banking network.

Washington argues the ICC has overstepped by intruding on US sovereignty. The United States does not accept the court’s jurisdiction, yet the ICC moved ahead with an investigation into possible war crimes in Afghanistan, including allegations involving American troops.

For Judge Prost, the sanctions have done nothing to shake her resolve.

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“All credit cards are cancelled immediately. It doesn’t matter where they were issued, whether in the Netherlands or Canada, they stop working once you’re sanctioned because of the influence of the United States in the financial context.”

And that, she said, was only the start.

“Amazon was the first to tell me my account had been cancelled. And then I suppose the most traumatic moment came when I went home, wasn’t even thinking about it, and spoke to Alexa, who would not speak to me,” she said.

The digital fallout spread quickly: “Other things followed from that – whether it be on my emails or other types of services, inability to use certain booking companies, that kind of thing.”

Judge Prost said she discovered that even though the sanctions do not apply to European companies, some still chose to comply rather than risk running afoul of Washington: “That happens. Banks just simply say: We don’t want the trouble, our American component or investments or whatever it may be, our business is important to us.”

The impact has stretched as far as New Zealand, where a company trying to reserve a hotel room for the judge triggered a warning. Her name alone was enough to cause difficulty – they were not even attempting to use her EU debit card, which retains only limited functions.

“We must fight hard to defend it now, fight harder.”

“It’s really frustrating because it’s unpredictable when that’s going to come… in a context where there doesn’t seem to be an American role,” she said.

She added: “There’s a number of situations where you simply have no choice, but to use cash. That certainly happened to me when I was travelling in New Zealand. You had to resort to cash.”

Eight judges and three prosecutors at the ICC are facing the same reality.

“I was sanctioned because five years ago, [when] sitting temporarily in the Appeals Chamber… I unanimously, with my four colleagues, we authorised the prosecutor to investigate the situation of allegations of these crimes in Afghanistan,” said Judge Prost.

That covered “alleged crimes by the Taliban, by Afghan forces or other forces, and there was a component relating to the United States”.

“And as a result of that, I was sanctioned,” she said.

Even as international law is pushed aside in conflicts across the globe, Judge Prost said she remains convinced the ICC will survive and continue to serve an important purpose.

“I’m confident this is a difficult time, but we will come through it, and we will eventually progress again… It’s too important to in any way abandon. And if anything, we must fight hard to defend it now, fight harder. “

Judge Prost said she hopes the sanctions will be removed when her nine-year term at the ICC ends, though she accepts it is “not clear” that this will happen.

Until they are lifted either unilaterally or through legal action, she will continue to live with the daily burden and uncertainty they bring.

“Frustration would be the real word for it, because every day something happens and you think, okay, how am I going to deal with this? And it’s the uncertainty,” she said.

The judge recently attempted to transfer money as a wedding gift for a young couple, only to find that “it’s blocked still somewhere in the system.”

Even so, there is no indication the sanctions will obstruct the court’s work.

“We are here together at the court. We work on the issues as best we can… We’re resilient.”