Navi Pillay, a former UN human rights chief and International Court of Justice judge, has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee recognised the 85-year-old South African judge "for her efforts to promote peace and international law", which paved the way for a "more comprehensive global legal order."
Pillay becomes South Africa's fifth Nobel Peace Prize winner, following Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. The Nobel committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said her work had been "instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted." He noted that at a time of rising global conflict, "international law is no longer just a supplement to peace and security. It is an absolute necessity."
Pillay learned of the award at Nuremberg's Palace of Justice, initially saying "it must be a joke" before thanking those gathered to applaud her. She dedicated the prize to "all the survivors of international crimes" and practitioners of international justice.
Her career spans decades of high-profile work on human rights violations in Rwanda, Myanmar and Gaza. She served as a judge on the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, including four years as its president, and was elected to the International Criminal Court in 2003. From 2021 to 2025, she chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, a fact-finding body that concluded Israel had committed genocidal acts in Gaza and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant had "incited the commission of genocide."
Israel's Foreign Ministry called Pillay's award a "grotesque weaponisation" representing "anti-Israel hatred and prejudice." The ministry said her role in what it called "relentless, politically motivated demonisation of Israel" was significant. Israel rejected the commission's findings and accused its members of serving as "Hamas proxies." Frydnes noted the Nobel organisation was not taking a position on whether the Israeli offensive in Gaza amounted to genocide.
Pillay began her career defending anti-apartheid activists in South Africa and became the first woman to establish a law practice in Natal Province in 1967 and the first non-white woman appointed to South Africa's high court.
UN Secretary General António Guterres called her "a steadfast, independent voice of justice amidst some of the most historic international legal cases of our time." South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa praised her work to "uphold human dignity and bring hope in South Africa and to peoples globally."