Navi Pillay, whose UN inquiry found Gaza genocide, wins Nobel Peace Prize
South African jurist honoured for defending international law, as Nobel committee says war crimes and genocide must be prosecuted
OSLO (MNTV) — The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday to Navi Pillay, the South African jurist and former UN human rights chief who most recently led the United Nations inquiry that found Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.
Announcing the prize in Oslo, the committee said Pillay was recognised for her work “to promote peace and international law” and for being “instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.”
Committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said the system of international law was “under tremendous pressure” and its institutions “under attack,” and praised the judges “who guard the thin red line between order and chaos.”
“International law is no longer just a supplement to peace and security.
It is an absolute necessity,” the committee said, pointing to “more wars and conflicts than the world has seen in a long time.”
Pillay, 85, has spent more than four decades in international justice.
A lawyer of Indian Tamil descent, she defended anti-apartheid activists under white-minority rule and became the first woman of colour to sit on South Africa’s High Court. She went on to serve as a judge and president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, as a judge on the International Criminal Court, and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014.
From 2021 until her resignation in July 2025, Pillay chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, East Jerusalem and Israel.
Under her leadership, the commission concluded in 2025 that Israel’s conduct in Gaza amounted to genocide.
The commission’s work has since been echoed by other UN experts and rights groups.
The committee did not frame the award around any single conflict, casting it instead as a defence of the laws and courts meant to restrain warring states.
But the choice of a jurist so closely identified with accountability for Gaza drew immediate attention, coming two days after the third anniversary of a war that has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians.
The prize also lands against the backdrop of an intense lobbying campaign by US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly said he deserves the award even as his administration wages war on Iran. He was not chosen.
Pillay is the 125th recipient of the Peace Prize. The award, worth 11 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), will be presented at a ceremony in Oslo on Dec. 10.
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