In a year when the guardians of global justice say the rules-based order is being tested, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to Navanethem ‘Navi’ Pillay, citing her long campaign for peace and international law.
Announcing the decision in Oslo, committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said Ms Pillay had played a pivotal role in pushing the world to pursue accountability for the gravest atrocities.
“This year’s laureate has been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted,” Mr Frydnes said.
Ms Pillay, reacting to the applause that followed the announcement, quipped that she might “share the prize” with US President Donald Trump if the clapping continued.
“If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump,” she said in a video posted to X by Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard, which showed Ms Pillay being applauded after the announcement of the award.
Amazing moment. Navi Pillay has received the Nobel Peace Prize ! https://t.co/HL3r1PJzLO We are at the Nuremberg Court; I cannot think of a stronger symbol for her Nobel prize. We are all so thrilled! This is her first reactions upon hearing the news: https://t.co/Crbj6XdiyQ
— Agnes Callamard (@AgnesCallamard) October 9, 2026
Asked about her initial response, Ms Pillay said she suspected the news could not be real.
“Being a lawyer and a judge, I still want to verify this,” the 85-year-old said, adding she wanted to be sure it was true.
She pointed to her recent work leading the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) — a body that does not speak on behalf of the United Nations — including its findings last year that genocide was occurring in Gaza.
“The last thing I did is the delivery of the report on Gaza, naming what’s happening there as genocide,” she said.
Ms Pillay said the response to that report had left her struck by the praise for what others described as bravery.
“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?” she added.
Born in South Africa, Ms Pillay has held some of the most prominent judicial posts in the international system, serving as a judge on the High Court in South Africa, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court.
She later became the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and, until recently, chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
According to the committee’s citation, she is currently is a judge on the International Court of Justice in the case where Myanmar stands accused of genocide.
Myanmar has denied the accusation.
“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.
Watch: Prize awarded to Pillay for ‘efforts to promote peace and international law’
The Nobel committee said it was recognising Ms Pillay at a moment when the international legal architecture is facing growing strain.
“The system of international law is under tremendous pressure and its institutions are under attack,” Mr Frydnes told a press conference. He said the committee saw a drift “towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice.”
In its statement, the committee said Ms Pillay had pressed states and national leaders to answer for abuses, offered victims of conflict a measure of hope, and shown what it called a steady moral compass throughout her career.
That backdrop has included increasing political pressure on the Hague-based ICC, which has been the target of an escalating campaign by Mr Trump, who last month urged countries to leave it.
The US has already imposed targeted sanctions on several prosecutors and judges at the court and, according to sources, is considering wider sanctions in retaliation for the targeting of Israeli leaders.
Still, the decision should not be read as a direct rebuke of the US president, said Haakon Gjerloew, acting director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
“I think it’s generally rather a promotion of an international legal world order. Of course, he might react to someone who has been part of the ICC, but it’s not a direct attack on Trump,” Mr Gjerloew said.
UN welcomes award win, Israel says it legitimises ‘anti-Israel hatred’
Reaction to the award quickly spread across diplomatic and political circles.
The United Nations human rights office welcomed the news of Ms Pillay’s win, acknowledging her longstanding advocacy for human rights.
“It is amazing news, we need more dedication and commitment to human rights,” Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, told reporters in Geneva.
“We hope it will encourage and continue to encourage and inspire others to speak out in protection and promotion of the human rights of all people around the world,” she added.
In September last year Ms Pillay oversaw the publishing of a report by the UN Commission of Inquiry that concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, incited these acts – accusations that Israel called scandalous.
Israel criticised the awarding of the prize to Ms Pillay today, saying it legitimised “anti-Israel hatred” and that Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels must be “applauding from hell”.
“Now that the Nobel commission has rewarded the biggest lie of the 21st century, Joseph Goebbels is certainly applauding from hell,” the Israeli foreign ministry posted on X.
Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed Ms Pillay as a champion “of the rule of law over the right of might” who “confronted some of humanity’s darkest chapters”.
“She is the defender of the persecuted, the vulnerable, the voiceless and the excluded,” Ms von der Leyen posted on X. “In a world that needs justice more than ever, her courage and moral clarity are a precious compass.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that prize was a “profound tribute to the veteran jurist’s courage, integrity and lifelong commitment to justice”.
The peace prize is the fifth Nobel awarded this week, after literature, chemistry, physics and medicine.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the peace prize in 2025.
The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 12 million Swedish crowns (€1.07m), is due to be presented in Oslo on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.
