Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
South African jurist of Indian origin Navi Pillay has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her work to advance peace and international law. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said the award recognised her efforts to promote universal legal principles and hold states and national leaders accountable.
Pillay, 85, learnt of the award on Friday while she was in Courtroom 600 in Nuremberg, Germany, where Nazi leaders were tried after World War II. She said the moment brought her journey full circle, from a law student inspired by the Nuremberg trials to one of the world’s best-known figures in international justice.
advertisement
“Perhaps it was meant to be that I was in this historic courtroom, 600, where the Nuremberg trials were held, when the announcement was made and I was informed of the award,” Pillay said after the announcement. She dedicated the prize to survivors of international crimes and those working to advance international justice, saying their “compassion and courage continue to ensure that impunity will not be allowed to reign”.
Pillay said she had first encountered transcripts of the Nuremberg trials while studying at the University of Natal in apartheid-era South Africa. The records, she said, captivated her with the idea that individuals could be held accountable for grave crimes through an international system of justice.
In her remarks after the Nobel announcement, Pillay said, “We are living through an era when international law and human rights are under significant political attack,” pointing to attacks on the International Criminal Court. She warned that efforts to weaken international criminal justice risked undoing progress made since the Nuremberg trials. “They risk returning us to a world in which power rather than law determines whose suffering matters,” she said.
One of Pillay’s most recent roles was as chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. In September 2025, the commission concluded that Israeli authorities and security forces had committed and were continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The commission also concluded that Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Yoav Gallant had incited genocide. Israel rejected the commission’s findings. The conclusions were those of an investigative body, not a final ruling by an international court.
Born in Durban on September 23, 1941, to a family of Indian origin with Tamil roots, Navanethem “Navi” Pillay grew up under apartheid. Her family was poor, and her father worked as a bus driver while also taking on other jobs to support the household. Her mother raised the children, and both parents stressed the value of education. “We grew up very poor,” Pillay recalled in a UN interview.
She graduated from the University of Natal with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963 and a law degree in 1965. She later pursued postgraduate studies at Harvard Law School and earned a doctorate in juridical science in 1988. In 1967, she became the first woman of colour to establish a law practice in Natal Province, according to the Institute for African Women in Law. She represented opponents of apartheid and political detainees, drawing attention to torture and solitary confinement. In 1973, she helped secure political prisoners’ right to legal counsel. A Harvard Law School profile noted that, as a lawyer, she had not been allowed to enter a judge’s chambers.
In 1995, a year after South Africa’s first democratic elections, Pillay became the first woman of colour to serve as an acting judge on the country’s high court. The same year, she was elected to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, set up to prosecute those responsible for genocide and other serious crimes committed during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. She served as a judge until 2003 and was the tribunal’s president from 1999 to 2003.
Pillay was one of three judges in the tribunal’s landmark case against Jean-Paul Akayesu, the former mayor of Taba commune, who was convicted of genocide, crimes against humanity and direct and public incitement to commit genocide. The 1998 judgment recognised that rape and sexual violence could constitute acts of genocide when committed with the requisite intent. It also recognised rape as a crime against humanity in the circumstances established by the case. Speaking on Friday, Pillay said she was proud that the tribunal had recognised sexual violence as an international crime. She described it as “outrageous” that the abuse of women and children during conflicts had been treated as “collateral damage or as reward for the hard fighting soldiers”.
Pillay later served as a judge at the International Criminal Court from 2003 to 2008 and as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. She is currently serving as a judge in the International Court of Justice case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar, having been selected by The Gambia to sit in proceedings concerning alleged violations of the Genocide Convention.
In her Nobel remarks, Pillay said the award had strengthened her resolve to defend the rule of law, independent courts and an international legal order based on principle rather than selectivity. Her message to political leaders was direct: they had a legal obligation to protect human rights and refrain from war. “That is an obligation I call upon every state to fulfill,” she said. Announcing the award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, “Peace requires justice,” and added that the rule of law was essential to resolving conflicts without violence at a time when international legal institutions are facing political pressure.
The prize marks recognition of a career that has spanned the fight against apartheid, work on genocide prosecutions, and leadership in global human rights and international justice. From Nuremberg to Rwanda, the ICC and the ICJ, Pillay said the award had reinforced her commitment to the rule of law and accountability.
With PTI Inputs
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
