A lawyer who started under apartheid
The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced on October 9 that the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize goes to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay. The committee said she has shown, in historic international court cases, that legal measures can help prevent war and violence.
Pillay, 85, was born in Durban, South Africa, into a family of Indian Tamil origin, at a time when apartheid laws shaped daily life. She trained as a lawyer and defended Nelson Mandela and other people who stood up against the system. She went on to serve as a judge on the High Court of South Africa.
Rwanda, The Hague and the United Nations
Her international work took her to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and later to the International Criminal Court. At the Rwanda tribunal, the committee said, her influence helped establish that rape and sexual violence could be a crime against humanity and also genocide. In the same case, a defendant faced charges of incitement to genocide based only on spreading propaganda.
Pillay served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. Until recently she chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Today she is a judge at the International Court of Justice in the case where Myanmar stands accused of genocide.
A prize announced at a tense moment
The committee said the rules-based international order is under pressure and its institutions are under attack. “Whenever might overtakes right, it undermines stability, trust and peaceful co-existence,” the citation said. The prize is worth 9 million Swedish kronor, and the award ceremony takes place in Oslo on December 10.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called Pillay a pioneering defence attorney for anti-apartheid activists. Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard, who was with her when she heard the news, called the choice an inspired one. Pillay is the fifth South African to win the peace prize, after Albert Lutuli, Desmond Tutu, and Mandela with F.W. de Klerk.