Navi Pillay, former ICC judge, wins 2026 Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO,— Former International Criminal Court judge Navi Pillay, who headed a United Nations panel that found Israel guilty of “genocide” in Gaza, received the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday “for her efforts to promote peace and international law.”

The Nobel Committee said this year’s prize highlights the need to protect an organized international order.

In its citation, the committee warned that the global legal system is under heavy strain and its institutions are being attacked.

It said the world is shifting toward power politics at the cost of legal rules and respect for justice, adding that when power replaces rights, it weakens stability, trust and peaceful coexistence.

Pillay, 85, was born in Durban, in South Africa’s Natal province, into a family of Indian Tamil background.

She has served as a judge on several international courts, including the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

She also chaired the UN Commission of Inquiry on the so-called occupied “Palestinian” Territory, which last year concluded that Israel had committed “genocide” in Gaza. Israel rejected the report, calling it “scandalous.”

Pillay previously served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 1967, she became the first woman to open a law practice in Natal and the first non-white woman to sit on South Africa’s High Court.

The Nobel Committee said Pillay held states and national leaders accountable, gave hope to victims of violence and conflict, and showed a strong moral compass throughout her long career.

The citation noted a consistent thread running from her early work defending Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists to her role as judge in major international court cases.

The ICC, based in The Hague, has faced growing pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who last month called on countries to withdraw from the court.

Washington has already placed targeted sanctions on several ICC prosecutors and judges, and sources say officials are weighing broader sanctions in response to the court’s actions against Israeli leaders.

Haakon Gjerloew, acting director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, said the committee’s choice of Pillay was not meant as a direct rebuke of Trump.

He said the award mainly promotes an international legal order, though Trump may still react since Pillay was part of the ICC.

The Peace Prize is the fifth Nobel awarded this week, following prizes in literature, chemistry, physics and medicine. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Peace Prize in 2025.

The prize carries a value of 12 million Swedish crowns, about $1.2 million, and will be presented in Oslo on December 10, marking the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist who created the awards in his 1895 will.

(With files from Reuters)