South African jurist and former ICC judge who oversaw a UN report that concluded that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, Navanethem ‘Navi’ Pillay, had won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
A statement by the Nobel committee on Friday said Pillay won “for her efforts to promote peace and international law”.
This year’s Nobel Peace Prize underlined the importance of maintaining an organised international order, the committee said in its citation.
“The system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack,” it said.
“We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice. Whenever might overtakes right, it undermines stability, trust and peaceful co-existence.”
The peace prize is the fifth Nobel awarded this week, after literature, chemistry, physics and medicine. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won in 2025.
The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 12 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.2 million, is due to be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards, opens new tab in his 1895 will.
The Hague-based ICC has been the target of an escalating campaign by US President Donald Trump, who last month urged countries to leave it. This is mostly due to the indictment of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over what the court ruled as genocide in Gaza.
Washington 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.
US president, Donald Trump had lobbied to be awarded the prize and collected the award plaque of last year’s winner during a meeting at the White House.
Born in Durban, in South Africa’s Natal province, in a family of Indian Tamil origin, Navi Pillay, 85, has been a judge on several international courts, including the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
She was also chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory that concluded last year that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Israel dismissed the report as “scandalous”.
She has also served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In 1967 she became the first woman to start a law practice in Natal and the first non-white woman to serve on South Africa’s High Court.
