The Norwegian Nobel Committee today selected Navanethem “Navi” Pillay for its Peace Prize, recognizing her lifelong commitment to ensuring that states and individuals comply with international legal standards. Separately, U.S. authorities have confirmed plans to livestream the December execution of Nidal Hasan, who was found guilty in 2009 of killing 13 people during the Fort Hood massacre.
The Pentagon said Thursday that the December execution of Nidal Hasan would be livestreamed, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth having vowed to make the execution public.
Public executions in the United States belong to a past exemplified by the hanging of Rainey Bethea in Kentucky in 1936 and Roscoe Jackson in Missouri in 1937. Both preceded the devastation of World War II, which made clear the critical role of the rule of law, paved the way for the creation of the United Nations, and laid the foundations for the development of modern international justice.
Contrasting Announcements
The contrast between the Nobel Peace Prize announcement and the planned execution is jarring. One invites the public to watch the state demonstrate its power over a human life, while the other honors a woman who has spent her career insisting that power itself must answer to law.
Navi Pillay‘s career has been marked by her efforts to hold governments and individuals accountable for their actions. She has worked on cases involving genocide, apartheid, and human rights abuses, and has served on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court.
Pillay’s work has helped establish institutions through which abuses can be judged, and has given those excluded from protection a language with which to demand it. Her receipt of the Nobel Peace Prize offers reason to keep working towards international justice, despite the challenges and setbacks.
The proposed spectacle would bring a firing squad into homes and onto phones across the country, raising questions about the use of capital punishment and the role of the state in demonstrating its power over human life. The case has also sparked debate about the impact of such a spectacle on the public and the victims’ families.
Her career has shown that even in the face of adversity, it is possible to make a difference and to bring about positive change.
Read Also: Trump administration sanctions ICC judges without legal basis
International Justice Under Attack
Today, the institutions carrying forward that work face direct attack. The Trump administration renewed its sanctions campaign against the ICC in February 2025, initially targeting prosecutor Karim Khan and subsequently other court officials. Today, it expanded that campaign to the court itself. The administration presents its actions as a defense of American sovereignty, citing bipartisan agreement that the US is not subject to ICC jurisdiction.
The US helped negotiate the Rome Statute but has never been a party to it, while the court holds that it may try nonparty nationals for crimes committed on the territory of states parties. The statute gives even non-party states ways to press that objection, but the administration has chosen instead to punish the court.
Using economic power to disable a court is an assault on the conditions that allow independent adjudication. It places pressure on judges to consider the personal and institutional costs of decisions that powerful governments oppose.
For Navi Pillay, the Nobel Peace Prize is a recognition of her decades of work to change what courts could hear, whom they could hold responsible, and which victims could obtain justice.
As a result of her work, people who were previously excluded from protection now have a way to demand it, and governments are being held accountable for their actions. The impact of her work can be seen in the cases she has worked on, including the Jean-Paul Akayesu case, which established that rape and sexual violence could constitute genocide when committed with the requisite intent.
As the world watches the planned execution of Nidal Hasan, it is worth considering the implications of such a spectacle on the public and the victims’ families.
Bringing public execution into the digital age should force Americans to consider what exactly their government is reviving.
Defending Judicial Independence
The Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court, gives non-party states ways to press objections to the court’s jurisdiction. The US, which helped negotiate the statute but has never been a party to it, has chosen to punish the court instead of using these mechanisms. This approach undermines the ability of the court to hold those in power accountable for their actions.
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