Oslo: South African jurist of Indian origin Navanethem ‘Navi’ Pillay, a former UN human rights chief whose work helped shape international law on genocide and sexual violence, won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her efforts to promote peace and international law.
The 85-year-old jurist, who grew up under apartheid and went on to hold senior positions in South Africa’s judiciary and international legal institutions, dedicated the award to survivors of international crimes and those defending international justice, saying their “compassion and courage continue to ensure that impunity will not be allowed to reign”. “We are living through an era when international law and human rights are under significant political attack,” Pillay said.
She pointed in particular to attacks on the International Criminal Court (ICC).
One of her most recent roles was chairing the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. In September 2025, the commission concluded that Israeli authorities and security forces had committed and were continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
The commission also concluded that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then defence minister Yoav Gallant had incited genocide. Israel rejected the findings. The conclusions were those of an investigative body, not a final ruling by an international court.
In separate remarks following the Nobel announcement, Pillay referred to the Gaza report as her most recent work, saying it had named what was happening there as genocide.
Pillay is also serving as a judge in a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in which The Gambia has accused Myanmar of violating the Genocide Convention. She was selected by The Gambia to sit in the proceedings.
Pillay learnt of the Nobel award while attending a forum in Nuremberg, Germany, where Nazi leaders were tried after World War II. She said it was fitting that the announcement came while she was in Courtroom 600, where the trials were held.
Warning that efforts to weaken international criminal justice threatened to undo progress made since the Nuremberg trials, the jurist said on Friday: “They risk returning us to a world in which power rather than law determines whose suffering matters.”
In a message to political leaders, Pillay said they had a legal obligation to protect human rights and refrain from war.
Born in Durban on September 23, 1941, to Indian parents of Tamil descent, Pillay grew up in a poor family under apartheid.
According to a biographical profile published by the Institute for African Women in Law, her father was a bus driver who worked multiple jobs to support the family, while her mother looked after their eight children.
Despite financial hardship, her parents placed a strong emphasis on education and insisted that their daughters, like their sons, should be educated.
Pillay studied at the University of Natal, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963 and a law degree in 1965. She later earned postgraduate law degrees at Harvard University, including a doctorate in juridical science in 1988.
In 1967, she became the first woman of colour to establish a law practice in South Africa’s Natal Province, according to the Institute for African Women in Law.
She spent decades defending anti-apartheid activists and political detainees, including leaders such as Nelson Mandela, and drawing attention to torture and solitary confinement.
In 1973, she helped secure political prisoners’ right to legal counsel, according to South African History Online.
Her work also exposed the racial barriers within South Africa’s legal system. A Harvard Law School profile noted that, as a lawyer, she had not been allowed to enter a judge’s chambers.
