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Original Coverage & Source Attribution: www.hani.co.kr
US President Donald Trump and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay. (AFP/Yonhap; UPI/Yonhap)
Navi Pillay, the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, blasted US sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC) as “unheard of” and “unacceptable.”
AFP quoted the former United Nations high commissioner for human rights make the remarks at a forum Saturday at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo, Norway, via video link from the site of Nazi war trials in Nuremberg, Germany.
“There is so much tension and anxiety over the continued existence of international courts, mainly the International Criminal Court in The Hague,” Pillay said.
“Hundreds of [ICC] staff feel they are under threat,” she said. “Most importantly, sanctions have been announced by one country against the judges, just for the judicial orders they issue. This is unheard of, unacceptable.”
When awarding her with the prize on Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee recognized Pillay for being “instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.”
A native of South Africa, Pillay was a judge on global criminal tribunals and UN high commissioner for human rights from 2008-14. She also chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry, which concluded last year that Israel is committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
The US announced additional sanctions against the ICC just hours after this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner was announced. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday blasted the court as “rogue” and announced a ban on transactions with it.
This time, the US sanctions were expanded in scope beyond individuals to include the court itself. The ICC previously mentioned that 13 people, including ICC President Tomoko Akane, judges, prosecutors and staff, faced such restrictions. The latest announcement has raised that figure to 17.
This means limits on transactions between American companies and the court, potentially disrupting the ICC’s access to key services such as finance, insurance and software. Exceptions are made for certain transactions, effectively granting a six-month grace period.
The ICC criticized the sanctions as an “assault on the rule of law,” saying, “History will judge this moment.”
UN Secretary-General António Guterres also warned that the US decision would deal “a serious blow to our collective pursuit of international criminal justice, of which the ICC is a key pillar.”
Eight countries — Japan, the largest financial contributor to the ICC, Germany, the UK, France, Italy, Denmark, Canada and the Netherlands — issued a joint statement saying, “As committed supporters of the ICC, we regret and strongly disagree with the announcement of sanctions to be imposed upon the Court by the United States,” adding that they “reaffirm our continued and unwavering support for the independence, impartiality, and integrity of the ICC.”
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi also expressed “deep concern” immediately after the sanctions were announced.
US President Donald Trump, who has long coveted the Nobel Peace Prize, on Friday voiced his frustration at a campaign rally in Syracuse, New York, saying he “should have received the Nobel Peace Prize but didn’t.” He claimed to have “ended eight wars” and was preventing armed conflicts between South and North Korea and between China and Taiwan.
He called Pillay “a liberal person who works at the United Nations, who nobody has ever heard of” and called her selection an “indelible stain on Norway.”
“The Nobel ‘Peace’ Prize has been forever discredited by a handful of Radical Ideologues who are Anti-Democracy, and Enemies of Civilization!” he wrote on Truth Social, adding that this will “never be forgotten.”
Israel also strongly protested the honoring of Pillay. The Israeli Foreign Ministry, which has persistently rejected the UN commission’s findings on the Gaza Strip as “distorted and false,” said the award legitimizes “anti-Israel hatred and prejudice.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also criticized the Nobel committee, saying it had “lost its moral compass” by honoring a “bigot.”
By Kwak Jin-san, staff reporter; Hong Seock-jae, Tokyo correspondent
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