Pillay has been instrumental in ensuring war crimes and genocide are prosecuted, Nobel committee says.

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.

The committee said in a statement that Pillay, a former United Nations high commissioner for human rights, had been instrumental in ensuring that 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 statement read.

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”.

Prosecuting crimes against humanity

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 peace prize, and other antiapartheid 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.

She chaired the UN Independent International Commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, which concluded last year that Israel committed genocide in Gaza.

“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, as such,” she declared in a presentation to the UN General Assembly.

She also declared Israel’s president, prime minister and former defence minister had “incited the commission” of genocide.

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

Verification

Reacting to the award, Pillay said she thought at first it must be a joke. “Being a lawyer and a judge, I still want to verify this,” she remarked.

“The last thing I did is the delivery of the report on Gaza, naming what’s happening there as genocide,” she continued. “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?”

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.

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 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.