The United States imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court on Friday, hours after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Navi Pillay, a former judge at the court, according to The Washington Post.
The court condemned the US move as an "assault on the rule of law," the BBC reported. Reuters, which first reported the sanctions, described the action as unprecedented and said it was aimed at crippling the court Pillay once served on.
Pillay, a former ICC judge, was named the Nobel Peace Prize laureate earlier on Friday. The US announced the sanctions within hours of that announcement, according to Reuters and Dawn.
The timing drew wide attention. CNN noted that Washington took the action against the court just as the former judge received the international honor. The Washington Post framed the sanctions as a direct response to the Nobel award going to a former judge of the tribunal.
Details of the sanctions measures were not included in the reporting summarized here. The court's public response, as reported by the BBC, characterized the US action as an attack on the rule of law.
What to watch next: whether the ICC issues a fuller formal response and how other governments and court member states react to the US sanctions in the coming days.
