Nobel Peace Laureate Navi Pillay Urges US to Resume Human Rights Role

Nobel Peace Prize winner Navi Pillay urged the United States on Tuesday to resume its traditional role as a defender of human rights and freedom globally.

Pillay, 85, stated her message is for the US to get back to playing their serious role as a leader, playing a liberatory role for the rest of the world. She made these comments in The Hague, where she is a judge at the International Court of Justice. Hours after Pillay was announced as the Peace Prize winner on Friday, the United States announced sweeping sanctions targeting her former employer, the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Pillay said the timing of the sanctions, which she called an unprecedented attack on an institution founded by international treaty, could not be coincidental. She visited the staff of the ICC to show solidarity for their work and to protect those already sanctioned. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday called the ICC a rogue court that would never be allowed to prosecute Americans.

The sanctions included a six-month grace period and exemptions for transactions related to telecoms, software, pension payments, and detainees. Pillay was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her lifelong dedication to international law and global justice. She previously chaired the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.

Pillay served as an ICC judge from 2003 to 2008 and as president and judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. The US has long been hostile to the ICC, especially its jurisdiction over non-member state nationals for atrocity crimes on member state territory. President Donald Trump was particularly upset by arrest warrants issued in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant.