South African-born jurist Navanethem “Navi” Pillay has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote peace and international law.
The 85-year-old former judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC) later served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the award recognised her body of work on international justice and sent a message to those seeking to weaken international legal institutions.
Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said: “This is definitely a message to those who are undermining the international system and institutions.”
He said international law was “under tremendous pressure” and its institutions were “under attack”, with a shift “towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice”.
Navi Pillay’s work in international law
Pillay served as an ICC judge from 2003 until 2008, when she left the court to become the UN’s human rights chief.
Her award comes as the ICC faces criticism from the administration of US President Donald Trump. The United States imposed sanctions on the court after it issued an arrest warrant in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Mr Trump described the court’s actions targeting the United States and Israel as “illegitimate and baseless”. The ICC condemned the sanctions against its staff, saying they were intended to harm “the Court’s independent and impartial judicial work”.
Frydnes said the committee had been unable to reach Pillay to tell her she had won. From the podium, he appealed to her to answer if she saw a call from a Norwegian number.
The Nobel Peace Prize is being awarded in its 125th anniversary year. The committee received 287 nominations, just over a quarter of them for organisations.
The prize carries 12 million Swedish kronor, worth about 1.2 million US dollars this year.
Four other Nobel prizes were announced earlier in the week, while Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson received the literature prize. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is due to be announced on Monday.
