Navi Pillay, the 85-year-old South African judge and former United Nations human rights chief, has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for promoting peace and international law. The Nobel Committee credited her with helping ensure the prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. A former International Criminal Court judge, she became South Africa's fifth Peace Prize recipient, following figures including Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Raised in a poor Indian community in Durban under apartheid, Pillay began her career defending activists who challenged racial segregation. In 1967, she became the first woman to establish a law practice in Natal Province. Her international career included serving on the UN-backed tribunal investigating Rwanda's 1994 genocide, with four years as its president. Her work has also addressed Gaza and Myanmar; she currently serves as an International Court of Justice judge in the case accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya, an allegation Myanmar denies.
Pillay received news of the award at Nuremberg's Palace of Justice, in the courtroom where Nazi war criminals faced trial. She dedicated it to survivors of international crimes and practitioners of international justice. Her recognition drew criticism from Israel, which rejected the findings of the Gaza inquiry she chaired from 2021 to 2025. That panel concluded that Israel had committed genocidal acts; it had no legal authority and did not officially speak for the UN. The Nobel Committee stressed that the award honored her whole career, not a position on whether Israel's Gaza offensive constituted genocide.
