South African human rights lawyer and former U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, with the Norwegian Nobel Committee warning that international law and the courts responsible for enforcing it are under growing attack.
Pillay, 85, was honored on Friday for her decades of work pursuing accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, including as a judge at international tribunals and as head of a U.N. investigation that concluded Israel committed genocide in Gaza.
Human Rights — Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) — The Nobel Foundation — South Africa — United States — International Criminal Court (ICC) — Israel — Palestine — India — International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) — Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel — International Court of Justice (ICJ) — Gambia — Myanmar — U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide 1951 — Switzerland — Human Rights Watch
