2026 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Navi Pillay

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay.

The committee’s announcement of the 125th Nobel Peace Prize, made on Friday in Oslo, said the award would go to the South African jurist for her work to promote peace and international law.

It added that Pillay, a former United Nations high commissioner for human rights, had been instrumental in ensuring war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.

“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,” the committee said in a statement.

Committee Chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes said the system of international law was “under tremendous pressure” and its institutions were “under attack”. It is judges, he continued, “who guard the thin red line between order and chaos”.

Reacting to her Nobel win, Pillay, 85, said she would “dedicate this award to all of the survivors of international crimes”.

She made her statement in the historic courtroom in Germany’s Nuremberg where the trials prosecuting Nazi leaders after World War II were held.

“Perhaps it was meant to be that I was in this historic courtroom … when the announcement was made, and I was informed of the award,” Pillay said.

She also drew attention to UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which she chaired. It concluded last year that Israel was responsible for genocide in Gaza with a specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza.

“The last thing I did is the delivery of the report on Gaza, naming what’s happening there as genocide,” Pillay said on Friday. “One of the main reactions to that report is paying tribute to me for my courage. And you can imagine how surprised I was. Why would you need courage to speak the truth?”

‘A tribute’ to those defending international law

A South African of Indian Tamil origin, the 85-year-old Pillay was the first woman to start a law practice in what was then the province of Natal in 1967.

She was a defence lawyer for Nelson Mandela, who previously won the Nobel Peace Prize, and other anti-apartheid activists and was the first woman of colour to serve on South Africa’s High Court.

She later served on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court and as the UN’s rights chief.

The committee highlighted her role during her time on the Rwanda tribunal in establishing that rape and sexual violence can constitute crimes against humanity and genocide.

Her work on the UN inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory said last year that Israel’s president, prime minister and former defence minister had “incited the commission” of genocide.

“We concluded that the State of Israel is responsible for the commission of four genocidal acts in Gaza with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza,” she declared in a presentation to the UN General Assembly at the time.

Reacting to Pillay’s Nobel win, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a post on X on Friday, called it “the grotesque weaponisation of an award to legitimise anti-Israel hatred and prejudice”.

Pillay currently sits on the International Court of Justice in the case in which Myanmar stands accused of genocide against the Rohingya.

“Today’s prize is a tribute to all those working to uphold and defend international law, the rule of law and human rights, and secure peace, justice and human dignity,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reacted to the news of Pillay’s success.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the award was a “profound tribute to the veteran jurist’s courage, integrity and lifelong commitment to justice”.

International law ‘under political attack’

The prize, which is worth 12 million Swedish crowns ($1.2m), will be presented in Oslo ‌on ‌December 10 on the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.

Four other prizes were announced earlier this week for medicine, physics, chemistry and literature.

The Nobel committee received nominations for 287 candidates for this year’s peace prize. Other contenders included the International Space Station, emergency teams in Sudan, children’s advocates in Ukraine and two top international courts.

Ashok Swain, a researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden said that while the prize will not deliver any concrete change on the ground, the messaging of the award to Pillay is key in the current climate.

“International law … was never perfect, but at least some rules were there. Now, it has become a free-for-all, and everyone interprets it the way they want,” he told Al Jazeera.

United States President Donald Trump has long coveted the prize and repeatedly said he deserves it despite starting the ongoing US-Israel war on Iran.

Last year’s winner, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, handed her medal to Trump after the US deposed Venezuelan former President Nicholas Maduro in January.

Pillay joked that she might share her prize with the US leader.

“If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump,” she said in a video posted on social media by the secretary-general of Amnesty International that showed Pillay being applauded after the announcement of the award.

Hours after Pillay’s victory, US President ⁠Trump shared a post on Truth Social saying the Nobel committee “demeaned” the prize by awarding it to Pillay, as the White House imposed more sanctions on the International Criminal Court.

In Pillay’s comments on Friday, she denounced attacks on international legal institutions.

“We are living through an era when international law and human rights are under significant political attack,” she said. “This worsening reality is particularly visible with the attacks on the International Criminal Court.”