Justice Navi Pillay condemns US sanctions against ICC

Justice Navi Pillay is using the global attention from her Nobel Peace Prize to call for the protection of international justice and urged the United States to return to defending human rights.

Welcomed with enthusiastic applause at the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Monday, the South African jurist condemned American sanctions against the institution.

Her intervention comes as her peace prize draws both widespread international celebration and fierce criticism from Israel and the United States.

“I think it’s very unfortunate.

However, the plans of targeting international criminal justice through the ICC was brewing all the time.

We all heard his threats against the court.

So, the timing of how they announced the threat and made it official is curious.

It can’t be coincidental when they’re so angry with the court.

And that’s why the first thing I did when I returned from Nuremberg to The Hague is to go to the staff of the ICC to show solidarity for their work in promoting international criminal justice and to protect those who’ve already been sanctioned.” ICC-indicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was among the first to criticize the decision after a UN Independent Inquiry, earlier led by Pillay, determined in September 2025 that genocide was taking place in Gaza; while US President Donald Trump in a lengthy tirade on social media and in person, slammed the Nobel Committee for yet again overlooking him.

Trump arguing that the Nobel Peace Prize had been “forever discredited”.

“The Nobel Prize was given out today to a liberal person who works at the United Nations, who nobody has ever heard of.

I’ve never heard of the person.

I know a lot of people.

I’ve never heard of this particular person.