South African judge Navanethem “Navi” Pillay has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the fifth South African to win it.
Making the announcement on Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Pillay for her decades-long efforts to prosecute genocide and war crimes, which have been marked by “judicial rigour, personal integrity and considerable courage”.
From defending activists in apartheid-era South Africa, to more recently overseeing a United Nations inquiry which declared Israel responsible for genocide in Gaza, the 85-year-old, who is also a judge at the International Court of Justice has specialised in international law for decades.
Here’s what we know about her life and why she has been awarded the world’s top peace prize:
Who is Pillay?
Navanethem Pillay, known as Navi Pillay, was born in the racially segregated city of Durban in South Africa’s Natal province in 1940 to parents of Tamil descent.
After earning a law degree from the University of Natal, she became the first woman in Natal province to start her own law firm. Early in her career, she helped defend numerous anti-apartheid activists in the country.
She later became the first woman of colour to sit on the High Court of South Africa. She went on to preside over the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda which prosecuted those charged with humanitarian crimes during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Pillay was the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. More recently she chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory which determined last year that Israel is responsible for carrying out genocide in Gaza.
Al Jazeera
