Peace Nobel 2026 goes to South African jurist Navi Pillay

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has announced the winner of the 2026 prize: South African jurist Navanethem “Navi” Pillay. This year there were 287 nominations, counting both individuals and organisations.

Committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said Pillay had shown exceptional courage and integrity in confronting war crimes. At the press conference in Oslo he stressed that international law is under enormous pressure, with its institutions under attack, and spoke of a shift toward power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global justice. Joking, Pillay said: “Se applaudite un po' più forte, forse dividerò il premio con Trump” (roughly: “If you clap a bit louder, maybe I'll split the prize with Trump”). The remark was picked up by Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard, who was in Nuremberg at the time.

A career in international courts

Born on 23 September 1941 in Durban, of Tamil Indian descent, Pillay was the first non-white woman to become a judge on South Africa's High Court. She presided over the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, served as a judge at the International Criminal Court and, from 2008 to 2014, as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Since 2015 she has been a commissioner of the International Commission against the Death Penalty. More recently she chaired the UN inquiry commission on the occupied Palestinian territory, which last year concluded that Israel was responsible for genocide in Gaza, finding the intent to destroy the Palestinian population of the Strip to be established.

The award has provoked very strong reactions. Donald Trump shared a post on his Truth profile calling the decision an “irreparable disgrace” and accusing Pillay of hating the United States and Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the committee had lost its moral compass by rewarding baseless accusations against the only Jewish state. A few hours later, the US Treasury Department announced sanctions against the International Criminal Court, where Pillay had served as a judge. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the court a “rogue tribunal” and announced a ban on transactions with the institution, aimed at cutting its resources and paralysing its operations, stating that Washington would never allow American citizens to be prosecuted by the court.