(CNN) - When South African human rights activist, Navi Pillay, won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, she was attending a conference at the Nuremberg Tribunal in Germany. It is the place where the historic trial of Nazi leaders - nearly 80 years ago - laid the foundations of modern international law.
As her human rights colleagues applauded and congratulated the former ICC judge on her win, her first reaction was simply: “Is this real? I thought it was just a joke.”
“If you continue to clap a little more, I might share this award with (US President Donald) Trump,” she joked - referring to last year’s winner dedicating his medal to the US president - then adding: “It is very fitting that I am here in the company of friends and colleagues who all support human rights.”
Hours after Pillay's victory, the Trump administration announced new sanctions on the International Criminal Court, the body established in 2002 to prosecute individuals accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
The work of the human rights community and the international legal system has come under increasing attack in recent years; This is a fact that the Nobel Committee was keen to highlight in its decision to honor Pillay, who is 85 years old.
By highlighting Pillay - who served in several international tribunals and oversaw a UN report that concluded that Israel committed genocide in Gaza - the committee explained that it aims to “remind the world that the rule of law - whether at the national or international level - forms the fundamental foundation of the system we have established to ensure peace.”
Justice is a “necessity” for achieving peace
This message was not explicitly directed to a specific country, but it implicitly included a criticism of those countries (most notably the United States) whose practices led to the weakening of international legal institutions.
As part of its efforts to “dismantle” the International Criminal Court “brick by brick” - in the words of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio - the Trump administration announced on Friday the imposition of sanctions on the court itself. Rubio said in a statement issued hours after the Nobel Peace Prize was announced: “We will ban dealings with this rogue court, cut off its resources, and paralyze its ability to work.”
This measure would sever the court's connection with American companies and financial sector services in the United States. The US Treasury Department issued a decision to grant companies an exceptional period of six months to liquidate their business and relationships with the court. The State Department stated that this deadline aims to “allow time” for the court to “demonstrate tangible progress toward reaching diplomatic and legal solutions that address fundamental American concerns related to the International Criminal Court,” noting that this deadline is “subject to modification based on the success or failure of these efforts to address our concerns.”
This wide-ranging action was immediately criticized by the court and other countries.
The International Criminal Court condemned this step and considered it “an attack on the rule of law and the fundamental foundations of the international legal system.” It also called on other countries to support the court and stressed that its work will continue.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom reaffirmed their “continued and unwavering” support for the court.
“As committed supporters of the International Criminal Court, we express our regret and strong opposition to the United States’ announcement of sanctions against the court,” the statement read.
A number of prosecutors in the court had already been subjected to US sanctions after the court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Galant in 2024.
Rubio pledged in July to “dismantle” the International Criminal Court, accusing it of “waging war on our country, not with bullets or missiles,” but with “the force of so-called international law.” It is worth noting that both the United States and Israel are not a party to this court, and Washington has challenged its jurisdiction to investigate either country.
The US administration’s dissatisfaction with the International Criminal Court dates back to Trump’s first term, when the administration targeted the court because of its effort to investigate allegations that US forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan. The second Trump administration imposed a package of sanctions on court officials in response to their attempts to investigate the United States and Israel.
Speaking about these efforts, the Nobel Committee warned that international law is an “absolute necessity” for achieving peace, even if it faces difficulties in holding the world’s most powerful powers accountable for their actions.
The committee added: “History has proven that a world that lacks the rule of law is a world characterized by injustice, unwiseness and inhumanity. Therefore, judges - those who guard that red line separating order from chaos - deserve our every appreciation and praise. However, today we are witnessing the imposition of sanctions on these same judges, and the attack on their institutions.”
Pillay, who has served as a judge in two major international tribunals and as a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, embodies many of the values that the commission wanted to emphasize. She also warned that international law - especially the International Criminal Court - and the field of human rights are under attack that undermines the principle of the necessity of achieving justice to establish lasting peace.
