Navi Pillay on the Nobel Peace Prize and International Justice

See our judgments quoted everywhere. Lovely. So, international criminal justice seems to be under considerable threat, including by US sanctions being launched against the ICC and its judges. And not that many major powers not joining the ICC, can it survive? And what should be done to help ensure that it does? I think we should all express our support for international justice. We stand on the principle that

There should be no impunity for these very serious crimes. So that's a principle that every person in the world supports. But unfortunately, it's not a court with universal jurisdiction. It has like 125 members, almost the whole of Africa, I'm proud to say, but not veto-holding states like United States, China, and Russia. They're not part of the

Of the Scott, but they seem to be engaging in many activities to undermine this court because suddenly the spotlight is on them. In this case, the United States objects to the judges authorizing the prosecutor to investigate not only the acts of the Taliban in Afghanistan, but the US soldiers who were based there. So that seems to be their strongest objection, asserting their sovereignty. This court has no jurisdiction.

Over them. While the Rome Statute, which established the ICC, is very clear. The court will only intervene if this state concern does not or is unable to begin investigations. So there's a solution for the United States. Then investigate your soldiers. But I think it's unfair and an unlawful violation of international law for one state who is not a member state, that's the United States.

And the other, Russia, who is not a member of this tribunal, who has also tried the judges of the ICC who had issued an indictment against Putin. They tried them, they have warrants of arrests against them. They're threatening to arrest the judges. So it's these two big powers. It's really time for us, the ordinary people, to raise our voices very strongly to say we object to interference.

In the judicial independence of these judges. Now it's kept on to the staff when they sanction the whole ICC. I went to see them and I was really moved by how fragile they felt. What's going to happen to them, their jobs? Can they bank? Can they receive their salaries? How can they even work when they don't have proper internet digital access and so on? Because that's been cut off too. I think Microsoft has been cut off for them.