Nobel Peace Prize winner Navi Pillay has hit out at US President Donald Trump’s “illegal” sanctions against the International Criminal Court (ICC), saying he needs a lesson in international law.
In an interview with AFP, the 85-year-old former judge also said it was no coincidence that the sanctions were announced hours after her Nobel, calling them a “reaction to the fact that the award was not given to President Trump”, Dawn reported.
“Call in your legal advisors”
Asked what message she had for Trump, Pillay said: “Call in your legal advisors to explain to you what international law is. He should call in his advisors to tell him why we say that it is unlawful for him to interfere with an independent international court.”
The US announced sanctions on Friday aimed at crippling the day-to-day work of the court, which tries individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. Trump’s administration has vowed to dismantle the court “brick-by-brick”, angered that judges issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over alleged crimes in Gaza.
“Double standards”
Pillay noted that earlier US administrations had welcomed the ICC’s arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. “That’s selective, that’s double standards, and that’s wrong,” she said.
- The sanctions: will hit the court’s technology and banking operations and take effect in six months
- The Dutch response: Prime Minister Rob Jetten has urged talks with Washington on reforming the court, which is based in The Hague
- Pillay’s view: the idea of reform is “euphemistic”, because what Trump wants is “an undertaking that they won’t pursue investigations of US citizens”
“You can’t do that, because you can’t have double standards. You can’t selectively pursue one lot of people and not the other,” she said.
The Gaza genocide finding
Pillay headed the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry that found last year that genocide was occurring in Gaza. Israeli officials reacted with outrage to her Nobel. Netanyahu called her a “bigot”, and Israel’s foreign ministry said Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels must be “applauding from hell”.
“Goebbels had blood on his hands… responsible for the death of thousands of people. Not only Jews, but people of colour like me,” she replied.
She acknowledged there was little political appetite to arrest Netanyahu, who denies the accusations, but said she was confident he would one day face the court. “All my life I’ve seen people get around difficulties, so I’m confident that it will happen,” she said.
What she will do with the prize
Pillay said she found the news hard to believe at first “because they give their awards to very few women”. At 85, she worries her age will limit her travel, noting she visited 79 countries as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
She is consulting people on how to spend the 12 million Swedish kronor ($1.2 million) prize and hinted some may go to her native South Africa, where the University of KwaZulu-Natal has set up a unit in her name. “I believe in education for children and the youth,” she said.
Why it matters
Pillay’s Nobel has given the head of the UN inquiry that found genocide in Gaza an even bigger platform. Her challenge to Washington goes to the heart of whether international law applies equally to all, including Israel’s leaders. Read our reports on hunger in Gaza and on Gaza’s death toll.
This article draws on reporting by Dawn and AFP.
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