Human rights lawyer Navi Pillay awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Navi Pillay, a South African human rights lawyer and international judge, was announced Friday as the recipient of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for what the Norwegian Nobel Committee called her efforts to uphold a system of international law that is increasingly under attack.

The committee said Pillay had been “instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.” Formerly the United Nations’ top human rights official, and a judge at the International Criminal Court and on an international tribunal investigating the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, she is “one of the most respected international jurists of our time,” the committee said.

Last year, a U.N. commission led by Pillay determined that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, a finding the Israeli government rejected. The decision to honor her added to the growing global blowback against Israel’s actions in Gaza.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry denounced the Nobel committee’s decision, calling it “the grotesque weaponization of an award to legitimize anti-Israel hatred and prejudice.”

Though the committee did not mention Gaza in its official statement honoring Pillay, its chair, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, told reporters that her work on the U.N. commission was an “an important part of the reasoning why she received the prize.”

Pillay, 85, was recognized “for her long career, from standing up for Nelson Mandela to the present-day work,” Frydnes said. Born in Durban, South Africa, to a family of Indian Tamil origin, Pillay defended Mandela and others who confronted apartheid.

The Nobel announcement came as wars rage in Europe and in the Middle East, and as the Trump administration systematically targets several of the institutions that Pillay worked on. The Nobel committee said that a global shift toward “power politics” had undermined respect for law and justice, and that the award was “a message to those who are attacking” it.

Pillay was at an annual conference of human rights lawyers and judges in Nuremberg, Germany, on Friday morning when she was suddenly led away, said Stephen Rapp, a former U.S. ambassador for war crimes issues. Rapp said the room broke into applause when the news broke.

Here’s what else to know:

>> The prize: The prize is awarded annually to a person or organization that has advanced “fraternity between nations,” worked toward disarmament or promoted peace conferences, according to the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel, the creator of the prize. Over time the criteria for selection have expanded to include other areas, including championing human rights and environmental protections. The Nobel Prizes come with a financial award, which this year is 12 million Swedish kronor per prize (about $1.2 million).

>> How it works: Nominations for the Peace Prize are made by a pool of potentially thousands of nominators, who include heads of state, members of national legislatures and international courts, as well as professors and previous laureates. The winner is decided in secret by a committee of five people appointed by the Norwegian parliament.

>> Past winners: Last year, the prize went to Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader. She presented her medal to President Donald Trump after U.S. troops captured Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s president, although the Norwegian Nobel Institute said the award itself cannot be transferred. In 2024, the award went to Nihon Hidankyo, a Japanese organization representing atomic bomb survivors, many of whom have campaigned for nuclear disarmament. In 2023, it went to Narges Mohammadi, Iran’s most prominent human rights activist.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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