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![handle is hein.crs/govzkc0001 and id is 1 raw text is:
Congressional
Research Service
International Criminal Court: U.S. Response
to Examination of Atrocity Crimes in
Afghanistan
Updated April 16, 2019
On April 5, 2019, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revoked the U.S. travel visa permitting International
Criminal Court (ICC) Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to enter the United States, unless visiting U.N.
headquarters in New York, citing legal authority (8 U.S.C. §1182(a)(3)(C)(i)) to restrict entry of persons
whose ... proposed activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy
consequences. Secretary Pompeo explained the reason for the decision was Ms. Bensouda's possible
investigation of allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in and related to Afghanistan since
2002, arguing such activities could illegitimately target American personnel for prosecutions and
sentencing. The Secretary's decision is the latest development in the recent worsening of U.S.-ICC
relations, a relationship in which Congress has involved itself through legislation and oversight since the
ICC's creation.
ICC Prosecutor's Activities Concerning the Situation in Afghanistan
The ICC Office of the Prosecutor (OTP) announced in 2007 that it had received representations of victims
of alleged atrocity crimes related to the conflict in Afghanistan, a state party to the Rome Statute that
established the ICC, and that the OTP was conducting a preliminary examination of the situation. Upon
the examination's completion in November 2017, Ms. Bensouda requested permission from the ICC Pre-
Trial Chamber to initiate a formal investigation of possible crimes committed in Afghanistan since May
2003 and related crimes committed in other ICC member states since July 2002. In describing the request,
alongside descriptions of other alleged crimes and responsible parties, the OTP stated that there was a
reasonable basis to believe that U.S. armed forces and CIA personnel had committed [w]ar crimes of
torture, outrages upon personal dignity and rape and other forms of sexual violence on the territory of
Afghanistan or in secret detention facilities in ICC member states Poland, Lithuania, and Romania,
primarily in the period 2003-2004.
The United States has asserted that it has completed criminal investigations into all U.S. personnel alleged
to have committed such crimes, and therefore the ICC cannot exercise jurisdiction over these allegations,
pursuant to the principle of complementarity (Article 17 of the Rome Statute), which prevents the ICC
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
IN11101
CRS INSIGHT
Prepared for Members and
Committees of Congress](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.crs/govzkc0001&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)