Navi Pillay’s Nobel Peace Prize is a win for international justice

In a decision that sends a powerful message about the importance of international law at a time when it is increasingly under attack, South African human rights lawyer Navanethem “Navi” Pillay has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.

The 85-year-old former UN human rights chief received the prize on Friday, 9 October, for her “efforts to promote peace and international law”, after decades of work holding powerful individuals and states accountable for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

But Pillay’s victory represents something bigger than the recognition of one remarkable career. At a time of mounting global conflict and political hostility towards international courts, the Nobel Committee has made a statement: lasting peace cannot exist without justice.

Announcing the award, committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes warned that “the system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack”.

Speaking to SABC News, Pillay described the award as recognition of international judicial institutions, adding: “The work is personal, but mainly it is to recognise the great work of judicial institutions…I see this award as the voice of the majority of the world.”

Breaking new legal ground 

Born into an Indian Tamil family in apartheid-era Durban in 1941, Pillay has long been a judicial force. In 1967, she became the first non-white woman to establish a law practice in Natal province in South Africa, after white-owned firms refused to employ her. She went on to defend anti-apartheid activists and helped secure access to lawyers for political prisoners on Robben Island, including Nelson Mandela. 

Her commitment to justice later took her to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she helped establish the groundbreaking legal principle that rape and sexual violence could constitute genocide. 

She stated of the indictment, “From time immemorial, rape has been regarded as spoils of war. Now it will be considered a war crime. We want to send out a strong message that rape is no longer a trophy of war.” 

Subsequently, she served as a judge at the International Criminal Court and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Recently, Pillay chaired a UN Commission of Inquiry that concluded in 2025 that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

US-Israeli backlash

Pillay’s win has not been without controversy. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the decision, declaring that the Nobel Committee had “lost its moral compass” and accusing Pillay of spreading false allegations against Israel. Pillay has previously stated, “We just have this condemnation by the state of Israel because they are the ones that we have held responsible.”

US President Donald Trump also criticised the decision, calling it a “stain on Norway”, describing Pillay as a “liberal person who nobody has heard of”, while arguing that his own record of settling conflicts deserved recognition.

The controversy comes as Washington intensifies its confrontation with international justice institutions, imposing fresh sanctions on the International Criminal Court on the same day as Pillay’s victory, a move she condemned as “unheard of, unacceptable”.

It is precisely this political climate that makes the award so significant, reaffirming the principle that international law must apply universally, rather than selectively.

Responding to the announcement from the historic Nuremberg courtroom where Nazi leaders were prosecuted after the Second World War, Pillay dedicated the prize to survivors of international crimes and defenders of international justice.

“We are living through an era when international law and human rights are under significant political attack,” she warned, cautioning against a return to a world in which “power rather than law determines whose suffering matters”.

From apartheid South Africa to Rwanda and Gaza, Pillay’s career has been shaped by the conviction that victims deserve justice regardless of who is responsible for their suffering. 

In awarding Pillay the Nobel Peace Prize, the committee states it “wants to remind the world that the rule of law – national and international – underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conflicts non-violently. Peace requires justice.”