Judge Who Accused Israel Wins Nobel
South African jurist Navi Pillay, 85, who chaired the UN inquiry that found Israel committed genocide in Gaza, has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
South African jurist Navi Pillay, 85, who chaired the UN inquiry that found Israel committed genocide in Gaza, has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
Announcing the prize in Oslo on Friday, committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said they had failed to reach Pillay and urged her from the podium to answer a call from a Norwegian number.
Born in 1941 into a modest family of Indian Tamil origin in Durban, she grew up under apartheid and went on to become the first non-white woman judge on South Africa’s High Court.
Hearing the news to a standing ovation in Nuremberg, Pillay quipped she might share the prize with Trump if the crowd clapped louder. Trump has openly said he deserves the award.
The committee said she was instrumental in prosecuting war crimes and genocide, at a time when international law is under tremendous pressure. The $1.2 million prize will be presented on December 10.
In September 2025, her UN commission concluded Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that top leaders, including Netanyahu, incited it. Israel denies the charge and dismissed the report.
Pillay served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, often criticising Israel’s conduct. Before that, she was a judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
As a judge on the Rwanda genocide tribunal, she helped deliver the 1998 Akayesu verdict, the first to recognise rape and sexual violence as acts of genocide. She later led the tribunal.
The first woman to open a law practice in Natal, she defended anti-apartheid activists, including her husband, and won Robben Island prisoners access to lawyers.