Nobel Peace laureate Navi Pillay condemns US ICC sanctions as ‘unacceptable’

Jurist and former UN rights chief Navi Pillay, the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, on Saturday called sanctions announced by the US on the International Criminal Court (ICC) “unheard of” and “unacceptable”. “There is so much tension and anxiety over the continued existence of international courts, mainly the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” Pillay said via video link from Nuremberg during an event at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, lamenting “there are hundreds of staff who feel they are under threat”. “Most importantly, sanctions have been announced by one country against the judges, just for the judicial orders they issue. This is unheard of, unacceptable,” the 85-year-old South African lawyer said. The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday announced that Pillay, who once sat on the ICC, was this year’s recipient of the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize. Both the United States, whose leader Donald Trump has long coveted the award for himself, and ally Israel condemned her being awarded the honour. Hours after Pillay was named the laureate, the United States announced new sanctions against the ICC, provoking swift condemnation from member states and the United Nations. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington would ban transactions with what he described as a “rogue court”, escalating a long-running campaign by Trump’s administration against the Hague-based tribunal. ‘History will judge’ The court rejected the US sanctions as an attack on international law and warned in a statement that “history will judge this moment”. In addition to serving on the ICC, Pillay was the UN human rights high commissioner from 2008 to 2014, and headed the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which found last year that genocide was occurring in Gaza. The body does not speak on behalf of the UN. Israel has rejected the COI’s findings, calling them “distorted and false”. Israel’s foreign ministry said the award legitimised “anti-Israel hatred”, adding that it thought that Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels must be “applauding from hell”. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the awarding of the prize to Pillay showed the Nobel committee had “lost its moral compass” by honouring “a bigot”. Trump, who last month called on ICC member states to quit the court, meanwhile labelled the committee’s choice as “a disgraceful and embarrassing decision”, telling a rally of his supporters in Syracuse, New York, he had “never heard of” Pillay.

Nobel peace laureate Pillay calls ICC sanctions 'unacceptable' The winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize Navi Pillay, a South African judge and former UN rights chief, called the US sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) "unheard of, unacceptable" on Saturday. "There is so much tension and anxiety over the continued existence of international courts, mainly the International Criminal Court in The Hague... most importantly, sanctions have been announced by one country against the judges, just for the judicial orders they issue. This is unheard of, unacceptable," Pillay said via video link from Nuremberg during an event at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo. This comes after Trump called Pillay a “mystery person” and lamented the Nobel committee’s decision not to award him the prize, calling it “disgraceful and embarrassing”. The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, South African lawyer and champion of international law Navi Pillay (C) at Nuremberg's Palace of Justice in Germany on 9 October 2026 (Frank Boxler/AFP)

Nobel for former ICC judge Navi Pillay Trump sanctions court hours later