THIS year’s Nobel Peace Prize is well-earned. The winner, South African jurist Dr Navi Pillay, has had an illustrious career defending human rights and speaking up for the oppressed globally. She worked as Nelson Mandela’s lawyer, served on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, held the office of UN human rights chief, and was a judge at the International Criminal Court. Importantly, she headed a UN inquiry committee, which had the moral clarity to say that what Israel was doing in the occupied Gaza Strip amounted to genocide. This report was brave enough to assert what many self-proclaimed champions of human rights chose not to. The Nobel committee recognised Dr Pillay’s “efforts to promote peace and international law”. However, some are quite unhappy about this year’s choice. The American reaction, for example, has been petulant, bordering on the vicious. The US has sanctioned the ICC, with the secretary of state terming it a “rogue court”. President Donald Trump, who himself hoped to win this peace award, termed the decision “disgraceful and embarrassing” and an “indelible stain” on Norway, home of the Nobel Prize.

If anyone has been displaying rogue behaviour, it is the US. There may be many reasons for its hostility towards Dr Pillay and the ICC. For one, she has called out Israel for its genocidal violence, and defending Tel Aviv is seemingly a matter of faith for the US establishment. Secondly, Mr Trump’s reaction is incredibly petty. While the Nobel committee has given the peace prize to questionable recipients in the past, it is hard to fathom how Mr Trump — a leader who started a war of choice with Iran — could possibly qualify for a peace award. Even some of America’s closest allies — the European states and Japan — have been stunned by the ICC sanctions, and have expressed solidarity with the court. By sanctioning the ICC, the US has shown its contempt for international law and the global ‘rules-based order’. While this order is far from perfect, the US is looking to promote the law of the jungle globally, where America and its chosen allies can violate the rights of sovereign states at will, while their geopolitical enemies must bow in reverence. All free people of the world that believe in justice must resist this oppressive new normal.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2026