Former UN human rights chief and International Court of Justice judge Navi Pillay has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
The South African judge was recognised “for her efforts to promote peace and international law”, which paved the way for a “more comprehensive global legal order”, the Nobel Committee said.
Pillay, 85, has been involved in high-profile investigations into alleged human rights violations throughout her decades-long career, including in Rwanda, Myanmar and Gaza.
Her early work included defending anti-apartheid activists in South Africa. On Friday, she became the country’s fifth Nobel Peace Prize winner, following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Pillay’s work had been “instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted”, said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
“Navi Pillay’s commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass are constants in a long career,” he said.
“At a time of existential challenges — including more wars and conflicts than the world has seen in a long time — international law is no longer just a supplement to peace and security. It is an absolute necessity.”
Frydnes said the committee had been unable to notify Pillay in advance that she had won the award.
“My message to her would be: ‘If you see a Norwegian number calling, please pick up’,” he said.
Shortly afterwards, Pillay reacted to the news from Nuremberg’s Palace of Justice by saying, “It must be a joke,” before thanking those who had gathered to applaud her.
“If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump,” she joked.
Last year’s winner, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, gave her medal to US President Donald Trump in January as “recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom”.
Pillay dedicated her award to “all the survivors of international crimes” and practitioners of international justice “whose compassion and courage continue to ensure that impunity will not be allowed to reign”.
From Apartheid-Era South Africa to International Justice
Navanethem “Navi” Pillay grew up in South Africa during apartheid. She was the daughter of a bus driver and lived in a poor Indian neighbourhood of Durban.
In 1967, she became the first woman to establish a law practice in Natal Province. She later became the first non-white woman appointed to South Africa’s High Court.
Pillay served as a judge on the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which focused on the 1994 genocide in which approximately 800,000 people were killed. She spent four years as the tribunal’s president.
She was elected to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2003.
From 2021 to 2025, Pillay chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, a fact-finding body established by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate alleged violations of international law.
The commission concluded that Israel had committed genocidal acts in Gaza and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant, had “incited the commission of genocide” through their speeches and statements.
The three-member expert panel did not speak officially on behalf of the UN and had no legal authority. Israel rejected its findings and accused the commission members of serving as “Hamas proxies”.
The panel had previously concluded that Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and other grave violations of international law during the October 7, 2023, attacks, in which approximately 1,200 people were killed and 251 others taken hostage. The same report also accused Israel of war crimes.
Israel and Trump React to the Award
Reacting to Pillay’s award on Friday, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said it represented a “grotesque weaponisation of an award to legitimise anti-Israel hatred and prejudice”.
In a statement, the ministry said: “Her role in the relentless, politically motivated demonisation of Israel and promotion of the genoLIE speaks volumes.”
US President Donald Trump, who has previously expressed a desire to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, reposted a statement on social media claiming that the Nobel Committee had “demeaned” the award by giving it to someone described as an “unabashed hater of America and Israel”.
The US later announced sweeping sanctions against the International Criminal Court, saying the measures were intended to restrict its resources and ability to operate. The ICC condemned the move as an assault on the rule of law.
Nobel Committee chair Frydnes said the organisation was not taking a position on whether Israel’s offensive in Gaza amounted to genocide by awarding Pillay the prize.
Asked about her work on the UN commission, he said the award recognised her “whole work”.
Pillay’s Ongoing Role in the Myanmar Genocide Case
Pillay is currently a judge at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case in which Myanmar is accused by The Gambia of committing genocide against the Rohingya people.
Myanmar has denied deliberately attempting to destroy the minority Muslim population. In January, a government representative told the court that the allegation was “unsubstantiated”.
World Leaders and Rights Groups Praise Pillay
UN human rights chief Volker Türk said Pillay’s recognition reaffirmed that human rights, the rule of law, justice and accountability were fundamental to peace, security and prosperity.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres described her as “a steadfast, independent voice of justice amidst some of the most historic international legal cases of our time”.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa praised Pillay as a “pioneering defence attorney for anti-apartheid activists” who had worked to “uphold human dignity and bring hope in South Africa and to peoples globally”.
Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnès Callamard, who said she was with Pillay when she learned of the award, described her as an “inspired choice”.
“At a time when both international law and justice are under attack, when too many states attempt to hollow them out, her Nobel Peace Prize could not come at a better time,” Callamard said.