Donald Trump's administration imposed new sanctions on the International Criminal Court just hours after the former judge Navi Pillay won the Nobel Peace Prize. The decision intensifies the American campaign against the international judicial institution.
© Daniel Karmann/picture alliance via Getty Images
09/10/2026
by
A administration of US President Donald Trump imposed new sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), this Friday, hours after Navi Pillay – one of his former judges – won the Nobel Peace Prize.
“President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans,” said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a statement the Reuters news agency had access to.
“That’s why the United States is sanctioning the International Criminal Court today. We will prohibit transactions with this dishonest court, cutting off its appeals and paralyzing its ability to operate,” he added.
The Trump administration has conducted a campaign of attacks and sanctions against the ICC, which intensified in November 2024, when this court issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.
Last July, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio promised to dismantle the ICC “brick-to-brick”, considering the court as “an intolerable threat to U.S. sovereignty” and the following month he announced direct sanctions against ICC president Tomoko Akane and senior prosecutor Abdoulaye Seye, responsible for the practical execution of the trials.
However, according to Reuters, the new sanctions go much further by potentially punishing companies providing services to the court.
Last month, the President of the United States had already classified the ICC as “mallefic” and “crap” and called on the Member States to abandon it.
New sanctions arise hours after former judge win Nobel Peace
It should be noted that the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced this Friday that the Nobel Peace Prize 2026 was awarded to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, a lawyer and former president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
The 85-year-old South African Pillay was recognized for its efforts to promote peace and international law, and indicated the president of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jorgen Watne Frydnes.
Navi Pillay was a High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights between 2008 and 2014 and more recently led a UN commission that investigated human rights violations in Israel and the Palestinian territories.
This committee accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip.
“ At a time when the number of wars and conflicts is increasing and when judges and institutions of international law are under political attack, the Nobel Committee wishes to remember that the ability to resolve conflicts without force or violence depends on the rule of international law,” the chairman of the committee said in the announcement of the prize.
“An international legal system in which war criminals are held accountable and abuse victims see justice done is an essential condition for a peaceful world,” he added.
Pillay grew up in South Africa under the racial segregation regime of apartheid and became one of the first women of Indian descent to practice law in the country, standing out in defense of anti-apartheid activists.
As a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, he helped establish the international legal framework that recognizes sexual rape as an act of genocide and war crime.
The winner of 2026 succeeds Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who received the prize in 2025 for her tireless efforts to promote human rights and freedoms in Venezuela and to foster a “just and peaceful” transition from the “dictatorship to democracy”.