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Navanethem (Navi) Pillay, a former United Nations high commissioner for human rights and now a judge on the International Court of Justice, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Friday.
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, called the South Africa-born Pillay, 85, “one of the great defenders of international legal principles in our time” and said “her commitment to justice and human dignity is a source of hope and inspiration to all those who seek to bring about a more peaceful world.”
“A common thread runs from her early work defending Nelson Mandela and others who stood up against apartheid to her service as a judge in some of the key international court cases of our time,” the committee said.
Pillay is among the ICJ judges hearing a case initiated seven years ago concerning Myanmar’s treatment of the Rohingya ethnic minority and whether it constitutes a genocide.
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled to Bangladesh and other countries after the Myanmar military launched a crushing campaign in response to attacks by an insurgent group, one that included accusations of indiscriminate killings and sexual violence.
She was also chair of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory that concluded last year Israel has committed genocide in Gaza in its military response to the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks led by Hamas militants.
Pillay called Israel’s actions in Gaza “a moral outrage and a legal emergency.” Israel dismissed the report as “scandalous.”
International law system under strain, committee says
Pillay’s honour, the committee said, comes at a time of “existential challenges” for international law.
“We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice,” said Frydnes.
Pillay was born in Durban to parents of Indian descent. Frydnes said the committee had not yet communicated with Pillay regarding her honour, but was eager to do so.
The peace prize is the fifth Nobel awarded this week, after literature, chemistry, physics and medicine. The prize for economics will be awarded on Monday.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the peace prize in 2025. Machado was forced to flee the country after contesting an election against since-ousted autocrat Nicolás Maduro.
The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 12 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.7 million Cdn, is due to be presented in Oslo on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.