The ICC called the sanctions "an assault on the rule of law" and said its fate now rests with its 125 member states. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "President Trump will never allow the International Criminal Court to prosecute Americans." The court has issued arrest warrants against more than 70 people, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hamas figures, and retains the backing of most of its member states, including every EU country and NATO member except the United States and Turkey.

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the six-month window offers a chance for dialogue before the sanctions bite. Belgium's foreign minister called for the EU to adopt a blocking statute to shield the court from the US measures.

The sanctions followed the Norwegian Nobel Committee's announcement in Oslo on October 9, at 11 a.m. local time, that Pillay had won the Peace Prize from a field of 287 nominees. The committee described the award as a gesture of support for international tribunals facing political attack. Trump, who was also among the nominees, called the committee's decision "disgraceful" and said the United States should have received the prize instead. He has claimed credit for ending as many as eight wars, though he has not fulfilled his promise to end Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and Nobel observers pointed to the administration's military campaign against Iran, its territorial ambitions involving Greenland, and its confrontational approach to multilateral institutions as factors that weighed against his selection. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, led by secretary Kristian Berg Harpviken, says its decisions are made independently of political pressure.

Also nominated was Mykola Kuleba, a former Ukrainian presidential commissioner for children's rights who has campaigned for the return of Ukrainian children deported to Russia since the February 2022 invasion. The ICC issued arrest warrants in March 2023 for Putin and Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova over the alleged unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children; Russia describes the transfers as evacuations or humanitarian measures, while Ukraine says the children were taken without proper consent. US First Lady Melania Trump has separately advocated for reuniting children separated from their families by war. Kuleba, a co-founder of Save the Children, has worked since 2014 to deliver aid and evacuate children from Russian-occupied Crimea and Donbas.

Haakon Gjerløw, acting director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, had named five frontrunners he considered likely to win this year's prize before the announcement: Sudan's Emergency Response Rooms, a grassroots network providing communal kitchens, water and medical supplies amid the country's civil war; the Committee to Protect Journalists, which recorded a record 129 journalist deaths in 2025 as Gaza became the deadliest conflict zone for reporters in modern history; the International Space Station, launched in 1998 and continuously occupied since November 2000, which has hosted 222 astronauts from 18 countries; and the International Court of Justice and the ICC, both based in The Hague, for their roles in maintaining global order and prosecuting crimes such as genocide. Gjerløw said the shortlist reflected the importance of multilateralism and the protection of vulnerable populations.

The Nobel Peace Prize winner receives a medal, diploma and monetary award at a ceremony in Oslo on December 10.