Hours after Navi Pillay wins Nobel Peace prize, Trump hits ICC with major sanctions

The Donald Trump administration imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC) on Friday, hours after former court judge Navi Pillay won the Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote international law. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the sanctions were aimed at preventing the ICC from prosecuting American citizens. The move marks a significant escalation of the administration’s campaign against the Hague-based court.

“President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans,” Rubio said in a statement reviewed by Reuters ahead of the official announcement. “That is why, today, the United States is sanctioning the International Criminal Court. We will ban transactions with this rogue court, cutting off their resources and crippling its ability to operate.”

The Trump administration has repeatedly criticised the ICC over its arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant, as well as its earlier investigation into alleged crimes by US troops in Afghanistan, which the court has since closed. Washington has previously imposed sanctions on ICC prosecutors and judges, including its president, Tomoko Akane, and senior trial lawyer Abdoulaye Seye. The latest move targets the institution itself, raising concerns about its ability to operate and pursue cases involving alleged war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

The sanctions could further strain ties with European allies, many of whose countries are members of the ICC. The court, established in 2002, has 125 member states, including all European Union countries and most NATO members. The United States and Turkey are not members.

Pillay, 85, a South African-born jurist and former United Nations human rights chief, won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work promoting international law. She previously served as an ICC judge from 2003 to 2008 and chaired a UN commission that concluded Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, a finding that Israel has strongly rejected. Announcing the award in Oslo, Norwegian Nobel Committee chairman Jørgen Watne Frydnes said the prize sought to remind the world that the rule of law underpins efforts to maintain peace and resolve conflicts without violence.

Pillay, speaking after learning of the award in Nuremberg, Germany, warned that efforts to weaken international criminal justice threatened decades of progress. “(They) endanger the progress painstakingly made since Nuremberg, and they risk returning us to a world in which power, rather than law, determines whose suffering matters,” she said.