Navanethem Navi Pillay won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
She was honoured for defending human rights and international law.
She is a South African citizen, 85 years old.
Navanethem "Navi" Pillay has been announced as the winner of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee on October 9. The award has been given for her efforts to promote peace and international law.
Navanethem Navi Pillay, 85, is a former UN human rights chief. Pillay led a United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory last year that investigated the war in Gaza and found that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians.
Her inquiry committee further revealed that Israeli authorities and security forces have "deliberately carried out acts inflicting death and severe bodily and mental harm on hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children". Israel has, however, denounced these allegations.
While awarding her the peace prize, the committee’s chair, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, said, “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.”
The committee added, “At a time of existential challenges – including more wars and conflicts than the world has seen in a long time – international law is no longer just a supplement to peace and security. It is an absolute necessity.”
The committee also said that Pillay held states and national leaders accountable and brought hope to victims of violence and conflict. She showed a firm moral compass in her long career.
Early Life and Education
Navanethem "Navi" Pillay is a South African citizen of Indian Tamil origin. She was born on 23 September 1941 in Durban, South Africa. She was enrolled at the University of Natal and completed her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1963.
She completed her master’s degree in 1965. She later went to attend Harvard Law School and completed an LLM in 1982 and a Doctor of Juridical Science degree in 1988. Pillay became the first South African to obtain a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School.
Career
Pillay opened her own law firm in 1967 and became the first woman of colour to have her own law firm in Natal. After this, she spent many years of her career defending anti-apartheid activists and political prisoners.
Pillay has also worked on the issue of women’s rights in South Africa. She is the founding member of Equality Now along with Jessica Neuwirth in 1992. The organisation worked to abolish harmful practices against women, which included female genital mutilation and forced child marriage.
She has worked as the defence attorney for Nelson Mandela, who previously won the Nobel Peace Prize, and other anti-apartheid activists. Pillay became the first non-white woman judge of the High Court of South Africa in 1995. She has also served on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and at the International Criminal Court.
In 2008, she was nominated as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights by the Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, where she worked till 2014. She currently works as an ad hoc judge in the International Court of Justice in the case in which Myanmar has been accused of genocide.
