Former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
Her decades-long fight to uphold international law and hold perpetrators of serious crimes accountable.
The 85-year-old South African judge has worked on some of the world’s most difficult human rights cases.
From Rwanda’s 1994 genocide to allegations of atrocities in Myanmar and Gaza.
But how did her journey begin?
Raised in a poor Indian neighbourhood of Durban during apartheid, Pillay went on to become the first woman to establish a law practice in Natal Province in 1967.
She later became the first non-white woman appointed to South Africa’s High Court.
Her career included serving as a judge at the Rwanda genocide tribunal.
She led a UN commission investigating alleged violations in the occupied Palestinian territories.
Justice And Accountability
The commission accused Israel of genocidal acts in Gaza, a finding Israel rejected.
The Nobel Committee said the award was not a judgment on that allegation.
Committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes praised Pillay’s “firm moral compass”, calling international law “an absolute necessity” amid growing global conflict.
Pillay dedicated her prize to survivors of international crimes and those working to ensure “that impunity will not be allowed to reign”.
When first told of her victory, she reportedly joked that it “must be a joke”.
From apartheid-era South Africa to international courtrooms, Pillay’s career raises a crucial question.
Can justice protect peace when powerful states refuse to accept its verdicts?
