Overview
- The committee announced on Friday, October 9, 2026 that it awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay for her decades of work to hold perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide to account.
- The committee said it chose Pillay to strengthen the international rules-based system and to send a message about protecting independent judicial institutions that are under intense criticism and political pressure.
- Pillay, 85, learned of the prize while at a legal forum in Nuremberg and has served as a defence lawyer in apartheid South Africa, president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, an ICC judge, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and now an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice.
- Rights groups and UN officials welcomed the award as recognition of global justice work, while Israel’s foreign ministry condemned the decision and accused Pillay of bias over the UN commission she led that concluded Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
- The prize could heighten debate over the role of international courts and may influence political pressure on the ICC and ICJ ahead of the formal award ceremony on December 10, 2026.