The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Ms.
Congratulatory messages have poured in from across the world for Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of Tamil and South African heritage, who won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday (October 9, 2026). Pillay, noting that she has been “instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.”
Ms. Pillay noted her journey as a lawyer in the High Court of South Africa, where she campaigned against apartheid-era discrimination, her work for justice in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, and her most recent work at the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and Israel.
She said she has always tried to “advance and protect the dignity of every human being.”
This year’s laureate has been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted. The Nobel Prize Committee noted that Ms. In its announcement, the Norwegian Nobel Peace Prize Committee said, “The Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 goes to a person who, with exceptional courage and integrity, has led the way toward a more comprehensive global legal order.
Pillay, who was born into a family of Indian Tamil origin in apartheid-era Durban, South Africa, became a “legal pioneer” who confronted “deep structural discrimination, segregation, and exclusion. “A common thread runs from her early work defending Nelson Mandela and others who stood up against apartheid to her service as a judge in some of the key international court cases of our time,” said the Nobel committee in the announcement.
