Official portrait of Marco Rubio

Marco Rubio

Secretary of State

Confirmed as Secretary of State in January 2025. Repeatedly invoked emergency authorities to bypass congressional review of arms sales totaling $23+ billion to Gulf states and Israel. Sanctioned ICC judges and prosecutors. Certified third-country deportation agreements with El Salvador, Rwanda, and others. Ordered USAID dismantlement.

Linked Incidents

12 Total incidents
1 International Crime (Rome Statute)
5 Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern
3 Serious Rights Violation
3 Major Abuse of Power
1 probable 2 potential

Grade 5 of 5: International Crime (Rome Statute)

US Arms Transfers to Israel During ICJ Genocide Proceedings

Continued US arms transfers to Israel during ICJ genocide proceedings, including emergency bypasses of Congressional review and the rescission of the NSM-20 safeguard. This raises complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity for which the ICC has issued arrest warrants (Rome Statute Art. 25(3)(d) and customary aiding and abetting). Complicity in genocide is alleged on the basis of the UN Commission of Inquiry's findings but is unadjudicated.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

Emergency Arms Sales to Gulf States: $16.5–23 Billion (Reported Totals Differ) Bypassing Congressional Review

Using emergency waivers under the Arms Export Control Act, the administration has bypassed Congress to approve massive arms sales to Gulf states, including to the UAE despite documented evidence of UAE weapons flowing to the RSF in Sudan. The earlier rescission of NSM-20 removed an executive assurance policy; statutory conditions such as the Leahy laws remain.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

America First Arms Transfer Strategy: Human Rights Safeguards Removed From Weapons Exports

An executive order removed human-rights weighting from US executive arms transfer policy, replacing decades of bipartisan policy with a commerce-first approach. The subsequent emergency bypass of congressional review for $23+ billion in Gulf arms sales demonstrated the immediate consequences of removing these guardrails.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Executive Order Sanctioning International Criminal Court Officials

The administration imposed escalating sanctions on ICC officials -- including judges and prosecutors -- for investigating US citizens and allies, obstructing international criminal accountability and drawing broad condemnation from the UN and international legal community.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

ICC Immunity Demands: Ultimatum to Amend Rome Statute and Exempt Americans from War Crimes Prosecution

A systematic campaign to destroy the International Criminal Court's ability to hold Americans accountable for war crimes, combining unprecedented sanctions on judges with demands to rewrite the Rome Statute itself. The campaign goes far beyond any previous US opposition to the ICC, seeking not merely non-cooperation but the permanent restructuring of international criminal justice.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Sanctions Against UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine

The United States sanctioned a UN human rights investigator for performing the duties of her mandate, in what UN experts described as an unprecedented threat to the international human rights system.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Systematic Dismantlement of USAID and Global Humanitarian Consequences

Systematic destruction of the US Agency for International Development resulted in termination of lifesaving programs across the developing world. A Lancet study projected more than 14 million additional deaths by 2030 if USAID funding cuts continue. Ending foreign aid is not an international crime, but the harm is grave and the dismantlement raised serious domestic rule-of-law questions.

Grade 2 of 5: Major Abuse of Power

US Withdrawal from the World Health Organization With 2024–25 Dues Unpaid

The US left the WHO on January 22, 2026 without paying what it owed for 2024 and 2025, about $260–270 million according to the WHO and the UN. The 1948 joint resolution that authorized US membership makes the right to withdraw conditional on meeting US financial obligations for the WHO's current fiscal year. HHS says the US is under no obligation to pay.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Deportation Proceedings Against Mahmoud Khalil for Pro-Palestine Protest Activity

A Columbia graduate student with a green card was arrested by ICE for his role in Gaza solidarity protests and ordered deported on the novel grounds that his speech posed 'adverse foreign policy consequences,' establishing a dangerous precedent for using immigration enforcement to suppress political dissent.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Secret $6 Million Contract to Outsource Detention to El Salvador's CECOT

A secret $6 million contract enabled the US to outsource detention to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison, where HRW documented systematic torture. The unreleased agreement created an unprecedented mechanism to evade domestic legal protections by transferring detainees to a foreign torture facility.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Third-Country Deportations to Rwanda, Ghana, and South Sudan

The US paid Rwanda, Ghana, Eswatini, and South Sudan to accept deportees who are not their nationals, in deals a federal judge ruled unconstitutional. HRW called the expulsion agreements violations of international human rights law, and domestic lawsuits in Ghana challenge the deal's legality.

Grade 3 of 5: Serious Rights Violation

Secretive $7.5 Million Deal Sends 66 Deportees to Equatorial Guinea, Then On to the Countries They Fled

A secret agreement with one of the world's most repressive regimes has sent 66 deportees to Equatorial Guinea, where they were detained and, in the case of all 29 on the first two flights, returned to their countries of origin, including people US judges had found would face persecution or torture there. The $7.5 million deal is part of a broader $40 million third-country deportation program targeting migrants from countries that will not accept their return.