Nobel Peace Laureate Navi Pillay Calls Out US Sanctions on ICC

Nobel Peace Prize winner Navi Pillay on Wednesday blasted Donald Trump’s “illegal” sanctions on the International Criminal Court, saying the US president needed a lesson in international law. Pillay claimed in an interview with AFP that the US sanctions on the ICC were issued mere hours after her Nobel, and were no coincidence but a “response to the fact that the prize was not awarded to President Trump.  Asked what her message was to Trump, the 85-year-old judge told AFP

Call in your legal advisors to explain to you what international law is. “He should ask his advisers why we say it is unlawful for him to interfere with an independent international court. The US on Friday imposed sanctions against the ICC that would cripple the day-to-day work of the court, which tries individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Trump’s administration has pledged to remove the court “brick-by-brick” after it was outraged that judges have issued an arrest warrant for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for suspected crimes in Gaza.

Previous US administrations had supported an ICC arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, Pillay said, “that’s selective, that’s double standards, and that’s wrong”. The penalties would affect the court’s technological and banking operations and would take effect in six months, and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten has called for negotiations with Washington during that period to consider improvements to the court, which is based in The Hague.

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