Seventy-two countries at the United Nations on Monday offered strong support for the International Criminal Court as two of its officials face sanctions from Washington.
Since its creation Washington has refused to recognize the authority of the ICC, a special multilateral court set up to try genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity cases.
However on September 2 the US government of President Donald Trump took the unprecedented step of sanctioning its chief prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, along with another senior ICC official.
"We reconfirm our unwavering support for the Court as an independent and impartial judicial Institution," read a joint declaration signed by countries that include traditional US allies such as Australia, Canada, Britain and France.
The signatories, all from countries that signed the Rome Statute that set up the ICC, vowed "to preserve its integrity and independence undeterred by any measures or threats against the Court, its officials and those cooperating with it."
Sanctions, the declaration read, "are a tool to be used against those responsible for the most serious crimes, not against those seeking justice.
"Any attempt to undermine the independence of the Court should not be tolerated."
The joint statement "marks a stark rebuttal of Washington's unprecedented use of sanctions seeking to undermine the work of the ICC," said Richard Dicker with Human Rights Watch.
The statement "says loud and clear to the US administration: this is our court, back off," Dicker said.
Based in The Hague and starting operations in 2002, the ICC earlier this year opened a war crimes probe into US military personnel in Afghanistan.