South African former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay wins Nobel Peace Prize
"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 Norwegian Nobel Committee said on Friday.
It described the 85-year-old judge as "one of the most courageous and important legal experts of our time" at a time when "the system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack".
Pillay, currently a judge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in a case in which Myanmar also stands accused of genocide, has been "instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted," committee chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said.
"At a time of profound challenges to the international legal order and the rule of law, this recognition carries particular significance," International Criminal Court president Tomoko Akane said.
Pillay headed the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the world body, and which last year found that genocide was occurring in Gaza.
She told AFP at the time that her team had shared "thousands of pieces of information" with prosecutors at the International Criminal Court.
The UN said the prize for Pillay was testimony to the "value" of rights.
A snub to Trump
The prize was announced on the same day Pakistan said it had again nominated US President Donald Trump for his "historic role in advancing peace in South Asia".
"His timely intervention helped bring Pakistan and India back from the brink and secure a ceasefire, that is holding till today," Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wrote on X on Friday.
Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has campaigned intensively for the prize and hasn't hidden his disappointment at not winning it yet.
The billionaire has reportedly heaped pressure on the Norwegian committee to give him the award.
The White House criticised the committee on Friday for putting "politics over peace".
"If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump," Pillay said to a standing ovation captured by Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard in Nuremberg and posted on X.
Last year, the prize went to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who subsequently gave her Nobel gold medal to Trump.
Nobel Peace Prize haunted by the 'spectre' of Trump
11th African honoured
The prize comes with a gold medal, a diploma and a prize sum of $1.2 million.
The award will be presented at a formal ceremony in Oslo on 10 December, the anniversary of the 1896 death of the prizes' creator, Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.
This is the 11th time that a person or organisation from Africa has received the annual distinction.
Pillay is the second African woman to be honoured, following Kenya's Wangari Maathai in 2004, and the fifth South African, after Albert Luthuli in 1960, Desmond Tutu in 1984, and Nelson Mandela and Frederik de Klerk in 1993.
(with newswires)