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Navi Pillay Wins Nobel Peace Prize for Promoting International Law
Confirmed
In Short: The Nobel Committee highlighted Pillay’s independence, expertise, and steadfastness, noting her contributions to strengthening the institutions of international law.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to South African judge Navi Pillay on Friday, recognizing her instrumental role in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted.
Pillay, currently a judge on the International Court of Justice, has been a key figure in international law, particularly in cases involving genocide allegations against Myanmar and Israel.
"Of course we have to discuss it, but it’s not like that influences the discussions in the room and decisions that come out," Kristian Berg Harpviken, secretary of the committee, told AFP ahead of the prize announcement.
The Nobel Committee highlighted Pillay’s independence, expertise, and steadfastness, noting her contributions to strengthening the institutions of international law.
"This is a clear message to those who are putting pressure on these institutions, to those who are sanctioning the judges and are attacking the institutions. That needs to stop," Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, told AFP.
Pillay’s reaction to the news was marked by a quip about US President Donald Trump’s well-documented desire to win the prize himself.
"Don’t fall for false propaganda or just repeat slogans," Pillay said, urging everyone to make sure they check the evidence.
"To be honored for that kind of work is tremendous, not only for me, but for all my colleagues," Pillay added.
"In our report, the commission found that the Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces committed and are continuing to commit the following underlying acts of genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip: one, killing members of the group; two, causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; three, deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; and, four, imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group," Pillay said.
"Justice Pillay’s crowning as winner of the Nobel Prize allows us to celebrate the progressive contributions she has made to strengthen peace, uphold human dignity and bring hope in South Africa and to peoples globally," Yasmin Sooka, a human rights lawyer, said.
What this adds
The award comes at a time when international law is under attack, with the US and Israel taking issue with Pillay's findings.
Pillay dismissed the Israeli response, saying only the US and Israel took issue with the conclusions.
Hours after the announcement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sweeping new sanctions on the ICC, where Pillay once sat as a judge, as part of a campaign to dismantle the institution.
The reasons given by the Nobel Committee for choosing Peace Prize winners have changed substantially since 1901, shifting from promoting peace to defending human rights.
Background
"Well, you know, it's crazy," Carson told public broadcaster RUV in Iceland, where she was staying at the time of the announcement.
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to South African judge Navi Pillay for her work in promoting international law and prosecuting war crimes.
What's confirmed
- Pillay, currently a judge on the International Court of Justice in a case where Myanmar also stands accused of genocide, has been “instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted,” said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.
- “Of course we have to discuss it, but it’s not like that influences the discussions in the room and decisions that come out,” the secretary of the committee, Kristian Berg Harpviken, told AFP ahead of the prize announcement.
- Pillay’s “independence, her expertise and steadfastness have made her one of the most respected international jurists of our time.” She reacted to the news by making a quip about US President Donald Trump’s well-documented desire to win the prize himself.
- “This is a clear message to those who are putting pressure on these institutions, to those who are sanctioning the judges and are attacking the institutions. That needs to stop,” Frydnes told AFP after the announcement.
- Pillay told AFP at the time that her team had shared “thousands of pieces of information” with prosecutors at the International Criminal Court.
- The Norwegian Nobel committee said Pillay, who is serving as a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), has “shown that legal measures can help prevent acts of war and violence”.
- “Navi Pillay’s commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass are constants in a long career,” the committee said, mentioning her early work defending Nelson Mandela under South Africa’s apartheid regime, serving on international criminal tribunal, and then as the UN high commissioner for human rights, as well as chairing the UN independent international commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory.
- “It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the genocide convention,” Pillay said on the publication of the commission’s findings in September last year.
- “The last thing I did was the report on Gaza naming what’s happening there as genocide,” Pillay added.
- The prize was awarded to former International Criminal Court judge Navi Pillay on Friday.
- The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, the South African-born jurist and human rights activist, for her efforts to promote peace and international law.
- Navi Pillay is a judge on the International Court of Justice in a case against Burma alleging genocide over the military’s treatment of Rohingyas.
What's still developing
- But his war against Iran, his territorial expansion ambitions as in Greenland, his hard line on migrants, and his attacks on multilateralism and the media have, according to experts in Oslo, disqualified him for the prize.
- Pillay headed the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the world body, and which last year found that genocide was occurring in Gaza.
- Yasmin Sooka, a human rights lawyer and commissioner on both South Africa and Sierra Leone’s truth and reconciliation commissions, said Pillay “follows in the footsteps of Chief Albert Luthuli and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, carrying forward South Africa’s proud tradition of linking peace with justice and human dignity”.
- Last year’s award of the peace prize to the Venezuelan opposition leader, María Corina Machado, drew widespread criticism because of her calls for US military intervention in her country.
- Speaking on Friday after her standing ovation, Pillay noted that many had paid tribute to her courage in that report.
- Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has made no secret of his desire to win the prize, insisting that he was the most deserving candidate and claiming to have ended up to eight wars.
- “I don’t know about it so much. The question is: is it true. Being a lawyer and a judge, I still want to verify it,” she said.
- “I received the letter in writing … so now I have read it for myself, and it’s true,” said Pillay, 85, who won the award for promoting international law at a time when the system is under attack.
- Pillay had sharp words for Trump, who has coveted the peace prize for years, calling Washington’s attacks on the International Criminal Court “completely unlawful” as well as “negative and cruel.” “Heads of countries have a particular responsibility to spell out the principles, which is that you respect the law, you respect international law,” she said.
- Pillay dismissed the Israeli response, saying only the US and Israel took issue with the conclusions.
- Hours after the announcement of her award was made in Oslo, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sweeping new sanctions on the ICC, where Pillay once sat as a judge, as part of a campaign to dismantle the institution.
- Pillay says that while things in the world may seem challenging at the moment, she said that international law is a relatively recent development for humanity.