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Nobel Peace Prize winner Navi Pillay on Wednesday hit out at Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cillegal\u201d sanctions against the International Criminal Court, saying the US president needed a lesson in international law.<\/strong><\/p>\n In an interview with AFP, Pillay also said it was no coincidence the US sanctions on the ICC were announced just hours after her Nobel, as a \u201creaction to the fact that the award was not given to President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked what her message was for Trump, the 85-year-old judge told AFP: \u201cCall in your legal advisors to explain to you what international law is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe should call in his advisors to tell him why we say that it is unlawful for him to interfere with an independent international court.\u201d<\/p>\n On Friday, the US announced sanctions against the ICC aimed at crippling the day-to-day operations of the court, which tries individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s administration has vowed to dismantle the court \u201cbrick-by-brick\u201d, furious that judges have issued an arrest warrant for Israel\u2019s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for alleged crimes in Gaza.<\/p>\n Pillay noted that previous US administrations had welcomed an ICC arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying, \u201cthat\u2019s selective, that\u2019s double standards, and that\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n The sanctions, which will hit the court\u2019s technology and banking operations, take effect in six months and Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten has urged talks with Washington during that time to discuss reforms to the court, based in The Hague.<\/p>\n But Pillay said the idea of reforms to the ICC was \u201ceuphemistic\u201d, adding that what Trump wanted was \u201can undertaking that they won\u2019t pursue investigations of US citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t do that, because you can\u2019t have double standards. You can\u2019t selectively pursue one lot of people and not the other,\u201d Pillay told AFP.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be such a bad, dangerous precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n Pillay also hit back at Israeli officials who reacted with outrage to her Nobel, after she headed the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which found last year that genocide was occurring in Gaza.<\/p>\n Netanyahu called her a \u201cbigot\u201d while Israel\u2019s foreign ministry said Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels must be \u201capplauding from hell\u201d at her award.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s very hurtful and insulting,\u201d said Pillay.<\/p>\n \u201cGoebbels had blood on his hands\u2026.responsible for the death of thousands of people. Not only Jews, but people of colour like me,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n She acknowledged there was little political appetite to arrest Netanyahu to face the ICC accusations, which he furiously denies.<\/p>\n \u201cBut all my life I\u2019ve seen people get around difficulties, so I\u2019m confident that it will happen,\u201d she said, asked if Netanyahu was ever likely to appear in the ICC dock.<\/p>\n Pillay said she was still digesting the news that she had won. She found it difficult to believe at first \u201cbecause they give their awards to very few women \u2014 gross inequality in the practice so far.\u201d<\/p>\n At 85, she frets she will be unable to travel far and wide to sing the praises of international justice with the amplified voice of a Nobel Peace Prize winner.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that age will constrain me somewhat. I can\u2019t be as active as I used to,\u201d she said, noting that she visited 79 countries when she was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.<\/p>\n She said she was consulting people about how best to spend the 12 million Swedish krone prize ($1.2 million) but hinted some of it might be invested in her native South Africa.<\/p>\n \u201cAfrica is suffering. South Africa is suffering. It\u2019s very difficult to raise funds there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe University of KwaZulu-Natal has set up a unit in my name, so I\u2019ll begin to have discussions with them. I believe in education for children and the youth.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\u00a0\u2018Hurtful and insulting\u2019<\/h2>\n
\u00a0\u2018Age will constrain me\u2019<\/h2>\n