Navi Pillay, a South African-born jurist and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for his efforts to promote peace and international law. Pillay currently serves as a judge ad hoc at the International Court of Justice.
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, announcing Pillay’s prize in Oslo, Norway, said that Pillay’s work “brings hope and inspiration to all who seek to build a more peaceful world.”
Her victory is sure to be seen as a high-profile rebuke to President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both of whom have refused to accept the findings of a U.N. commission she chaired into Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The two leaders were also highly critical of the institutions where Pillay worked.
While her work spans the globe, criticism is often fiercely localized, particularly in places like Israel and apartheid-era South Africa, as she and her colleagues tackle some of the world’s most painful and sensitive legal issues and the most vulnerable populations.
Pillay, 85, learned the news while attending a gathering to discuss international law at the Nuremberg Forum in Nuremberg, Germany, where she received a standing ovation.
“First of all, your applause in this venue means a lot to me,” she told attendees. “You know, you don’t want to win any awards or prizes or anything unless the public agrees you deserve it.”
She jokingly added: “But as a lawyer and a judge, I still want to verify this information.”
She chaired an investigation that determined Israel had committed genocide in Gaza
Pillay chairs the Commission of Inquiry into the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Israel, which was established by the UN-backed Human Rights Council. The committee concluded a year ago that Israel was responsible for the genocide in Gaza with the specific purpose of exterminating Palestinians in Gaza.
The committee also found that Israel’s president, prime minister and former defense minister “incited the commission of genocide”. Israel has refused to cooperate with the committee since its establishment in 2021 and has strenuously denied the accusations.
Pillay has repeatedly denied accusations from critics who accuse her of anti-Semitism or allegedly turning a blind eye to Hamas attacks on Israel.
In an interview with The Associated Press last year, she recalled how she worked closely with Jewish lawyers fighting apartheid in her native South Africa and was invited to Israel to serve as the United Nations human rights chief from 2008 to 2014.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called accusations of genocide in Gaza the “biggest lie” of this century in a speech on the third day of the United Nations General Assembly.
Her victory puts spotlight on courts under Trump pressure
Pillay’s victory brings renewed attention to President Trump’s ongoing feud with the International Criminal Court. The Trump administration has sanctioned 13 ICC staff, including the lead prosecutor and nine judges, including the court’s Japanese president, Tomoko Akane.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio launched what he called “a comprehensive campaign to eliminate the threat posed by the International Criminal Court.”
When Trump addressed the United Nations General Assembly last month, he called the court an “out of control institution” and an “anti-American court with no jurisdiction” over the United States, and urged member states to immediately withdraw from this “rogue institution.”
There are concerns that the entire court could be sanctioned, a move that could severely impede its ability to deliver justice.
The Norwegian commission said it seeks to strengthen international law in times of conflict.
Watne Frydnes said the award sent a message to those seeking to undermine “international rules-based systems and institutions”.
“At a time when the number of wars and conflicts is increasing and international law judges and institutions are under political attack, the Nobel Committee wishes to remind people that the ability to resolve conflicts without force or violence depends on the international rule of law,” the committee wrote in a press release.
“An international legal system that holds war criminals accountable and provides justice to victims is a prerequisite for a peaceful world.”
Pillay currently serves as an ad hoc judge on the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest court, in the ongoing genocide case against Myanmar.
When countries do not have nationals on the permanent panel of 15 judges, they can appoint experts of their own choice. The Gambia launched proceedings in 2019 when it accused Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya minority and selected Pillay.
There were nearly 300 nominations for this year’s awards
The Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo received 287 nominations for this year’s Nobel Prize, slightly more than a quarter of them organizations. Experts say the committee typically focuses on the longevity of peace, promoting international brotherhood and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals.
Last year, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for a democratic transition in the South American country and was hailed as the woman who “keeps the fire of democracy burning in the growing darkness.”
Machado awarded Trump the Nobel medal shortly after the United States overthrew then-President Nicolas Maduro. But this is largely a symbolic gesture: The Nobel committee says the honor itself is not transferable.
Nominations can be submitted by specific groups and organizations, including heads of state or politicians serving at national level, university professors, directors of foreign policy institutes, past Nobel laureates and members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee itself.
One week after the Nobel Peace Prize was announced
This year’s four Nobel Prize winners were announced earlier this week. Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their work developing a tool that uses light to help reveal how the brain works. The physics prize recognizes a scientist’s efforts to unravel the mystery of a rare group of neutrinos. The chemistry prize honors two scientists who unlocked mysterious mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs.
Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson won a literary award Thursday for her “bold and inventive” works that blend the classical and the modern and blur the lines between poetry and prose.
The Nobel Prize in Economics will be announced on Monday.
This year’s prize is SEK 12 million (approximately US$1.2 million), regardless of whether it is an individual, a group of winners or an organization.
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Dazio reported from Berlin and Luis reported from Stavanger, Norway.