The Nobel peace prize has been awarded to Navi Pillay, the South African judge serving on the international court of justice (ICJ) and former United Nations human rights chief.
The Norwegian Nobel committee said Pillay, 85, has “shown that legal measures can help prevent acts of war and violence” and has “contributed to strengthen the institutions of international law”.
The committee highlighted a career spanning her defence of Nelson Mandela under South Africa’s apartheid regime, her service on the international criminal tribunal, and her tenure as UN high commissioner for human rights.
It also cited her chairmanship of the UN independent international commission of inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, which concluded last year that Israel was guilty of genocidal acts in Gaza “with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza”.
The commission also found that Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, president Isaac Herzog and former defence minister Yoav Gallant had “incited the commission of genocide”.
“It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the genocide convention,” Pillay said when the findings were published in September last year.
“Her independence, expertise and steadfastness have made her one of the most respected international jurists of our time,” the committee said, adding that it wanted to remind the world that the rule of law, national and international, underpins the system established to ensure peace and resolve conflicts non-violently.
The committee said it had been unable to locate Pillay before the announcement on Friday morning. She was attending a meeting of human rights lawyers and jurists in Nuremberg, Germany, at the site of the postwar war crimes trials of Nazi leaders, and learned of the award from colleagues.
She responded with disbelief. “I don’t know about it so much. The question is: is it true? Being a lawyer and a judge, I still want to verify it,” she said.
“The last thing I did was the report on Gaza naming what’s happening there as genocide,” Pillay added. “One of the main reactions to that report was people [complimented] me for my courage. You can imagine how surprised I was. Why would you need courage to speak the truth. You interpret the law. You look at all the facts, so it’s an impartial decision.”
Pillay is currently overseeing a genocide case against Myanmar at the ICJ. The ICJ, a UN body, rules on disputes between states, while the international criminal court (ICC) investigates and prosecutes individuals accused of atrocities and other grave international crimes.
Israel refused to cooperate with the commission of inquiry, arguing it was biased, and rejected its report as “scandalous”. The Israeli foreign ministry responded to news of Pillay’s award on Friday.
“If there were an award for lies, hatred, and blood libels, Navi Pillay wouldn’t just be a contender. She’d be a frontrunner,” the ministry said on X, adding that awarding her the prize “isn’t a recognition of justice” but “the grotesque weaponization of an award to legitimize anti-Israel hatred and prejudice”.
“Now that the Nobel commission has rewarded the biggest lie of the 21st century, Joseph Goebbels is certainly applauding from hell,” it said.
Hours after the announcement, the Trump administration unveiled broad new sanctions against the ICC, on which Pillay once served. US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the measures were intended to ensure the court would never prosecute Americans.
The ICC has not charged any US nationals and has previously said it is a court of last resort, unnecessary where countries have effective legal systems. Last year, Donald Trump, who has long coveted the Nobel peace prize, imposed personal sanctions against ICC officials deemed involved in investigations of Americans or Israelis.
The new sanctions target the court as an institution, blocking any ICC assets in the US and giving US companies and individuals six months to wind down any business with the court.
The ICC said the sanctions were “an attempt to obstruct the course of justice and to prevent the court from doing what it was created to do”. The court called them “an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order which strikes at the simple principle that no one stands above the law”.
Pillay’s award was welcomed by human rights activists and celebrated in South Africa, home to four previous laureates.
South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said: “Justice Pillay’s crowning as winner of the Nobel prize allows us to celebrate the progressive contributions she has made to strengthen peace, uphold human dignity and bring hope in South Africa and to peoples globally.”
Edwin Cameron, a retired South African constitutional court justice, said the award “re-emphasises that the prize embodies an international aspiration to peace, and to respect and understanding across borders – and that leaders of great stature in our country – [Desmond] Tutu, Mandela, now Pillay – are recognised outside it, on the international stage”.
“This may help reset our national debate on South Africa’s position in the region, and in Africa,” he said.
Yasmin Sooka, a human rights lawyer and commissioner on both South Africa’s and Sierra Leone’s truth and reconciliation commissions, said Pillay “follows in the footsteps of Chief Albert Luthuli and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, carrying forward South Africa’s proud tradition of linking peace with justice and human dignity”.
“From defending apartheid’s most vulnerable to her pioneering role in the Akayesu judgment, she has transformed international justice. That judgment helped establish rape and sexual violence as weapons of war – a historic breakthrough that placed survivors’ experiences at the heart of international justice,” Sooka said.
In 1998, the international criminal tribunal for Rwanda found Jean-Paul Akayesu, a former mayor of Taba, guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity.
“At the ICC, as UN high commissioner for human rights, and leading the inquiry that found Israel responsible for genocide in Gaza, she has brought unwavering integrity and courage to holding power accountable,” Sooka added.
Last year’s peace prize, awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, drew widespread criticism because of her calls for US military intervention in her country. Machado heightened the controversy in January by handing her winner’s medal to Trump. The prize committee insisted that the honour of being a Nobel laureate could not be transferred.
On Friday, Pillay joked that she could do the same: “If you clap a little bit more, I’m going to share this prize with Trump.”
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