South African jurist and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay was announced on Friday as the winner of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
South African jurist and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay was announced on Friday as the winner of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee honoured her “for her efforts to promote peace and international law.”
The 85-year-old was attending a conference in Nuremberg, Germany, when she received the news.
Born in Durban in 1941, Pillay became one of the most prominent African legal figures to receive the award.
The committee pointed to a long career marked by principle and courage. Its citation traced a common thread from her early work defending Nelson Mandela and others who stood against apartheid to her service as a judge in some of the key international court cases of our time.
She served as a judge at the International Criminal Court from 2003 to 2012, and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014.
The committee said she has been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted. She also headed the Rwanda genocide tribunal, and the committee stressed her judicial rigour and personal integrity.
The announcement drew an immediate response. UN Secretary-General António Guterres hailed her as a champion of international law and human rights, saying the force of law must prevail over the law of force.
The award also arrives amid political controversy. Pillay led a UN commission that accused Israel of genocide in Gaza, and Israel said honouring her legitimised “anti-Israel hatred,” while the Nobel committee denied it was taking a stance on that question.
Supporters see the prize as a recognition of a lifetime’s work for accountability and human dignity, while critics dispute her conclusions on Gaza. Pillay is due to receive the prize at the ceremony in Oslo on December 10.
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