Published : 09 Oct 2026, 09:51 PM
Updated : 09 Oct 2026, 09:51 PM
South African human rights pioneer Navi Pillay has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote peace and international law, recognising a career spanning the fight against apartheid, international war crimes tribunals and investigations into alleged genocide.
The BBC reports that Pillay, 85, was the first non-white woman appointed to South Africa’s High Court. Raised in a poor Indian community in Durban, she began her legal career during apartheid.
In 1967, she became the first woman to establish a law practice in South Africa’s Natal Province. She defended opponents of apartheid before moving into international justice.
Pillay was elected by the United Nations General Assembly to serve as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She spent eight years on the tribunal, including four as its president, helping prosecute those responsible for the 1994 genocide, as per the reports.
Her work later extended to the United Nations and international courts. CNN reports that Pillay led a UN commission that concluded Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a finding Israel has rejected.
She is currently a judge at the International Court of Justice in a case in which Myanmar faces allegations of genocide. Pillay has also held senior positions in the UN human rights system and served on the International Criminal Court’s Appeals Chamber.
Pillay was attending a conference at the historic Courtroom 600 in Nuremberg, Germany, when she learned she had won the Nobel Peace Prize. CNN reported that she initially questioned whether the news was genuine, telling the Nobel Institute’s director: “I don’t believe it until I hear it from you.”
She later dedicated the award to “all of the survivors of international crimes” and those defending international criminal justice. She said the recognition extended beyond her own achievements to people working in human rights and international law, CNN said.
In her remarks, Pillay warned that political attacks on international legal institutions threatened progress towards accountability. She said such pressure risked returning the world to one “in which power, rather than law, determines whose suffering matters”.
The Guardian reported that Pillay’s win drew congratulations from senior judges and human rights campaigners, while also prompting criticism from Israel. Israeli officials described the award as “the grotesque weaponisation of an award to legitimise anti-Israel hatred and prejudice”.
US President Donald Trump also shared a critical comment claiming the Nobel committee had “shamed itself beyond repair and demeaned” the prize, reported The Guardian.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee said Pillay had helped advance a more comprehensive international legal order and brought hope to victims of violence and conflict. The award recognises her decades of work promoting human rights, justice and accountability.
