South African judge Navi Pillay won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, 9 October. The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the award in Oslo.
Pillay once led the international tribunal that dealt with the Rwanda genocide. Last year she headed a United Nations commission that accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said Pillay had been “instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted.”
Pillay is now a judge at the International Court of Justice. She sits on a case in which Myanmar is also accused of genocide.
The Nobel jury said it chose to honour her while “the system of international law is under tremendous pressure and its institutions are under attack.”
“International law is no longer just a supplement to peace and security. It is an absolute necessity,” Frydnes said. He pointed to more wars and conflicts than the world has seen in a long time.
“Navi Pillay’s commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass are constants in a long career,” the committee said.
The United Nations said the prize showed the “value” of human rights.
The UN commission Pillay led does not speak on behalf of the UN itself. It found last year that genocide was taking place in Gaza.
At the time, Pillay told AFP that her team had shared “thousands of pieces of information” with prosecutors at the International Criminal Court.
The award is likely to annoy United States President Donald Trump, according to the report. His government has often attacked international justice bodies.
Trump has openly said he wants to win the prize since he returned to the White House in January 2025.
Pillay made a joke about this during a standing ovation in Nuremberg. “If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump,” she said.
The moment was filmed by Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard and posted on the social network X.
Last year, the peace prize went to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. She later gave her Nobel gold medal to Trump.
The prize includes a gold medal, a diploma and prize money of $1.2 million.
The peace prize is the only Nobel handed out in Oslo. The other prizes are announced in Stockholm, Sweden.
On Thursday, Canadian poet Anne Carson won the Nobel Prize in Literature. The 2026 Nobel season ends on Monday with the economics prize.
Pillay will receive her award at a formal ceremony in Oslo on 10 December. The date marks the death of prize founder Alfred Nobel in 1896.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL. Image: IOL. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.