South African judge Navi Pillay wins Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday to Navi Pillay, the South African judge who headed the Rwanda genocide tribunal and who last year presided over a UN commission that accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.

Pillay, currently a judge on the International Court of Justice in a case where Myanmar also stands accused of genocide, has been “instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted”, said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.

“In historic international court cases, she has shown that legal measures can help prevent acts of war and violence,” the committee said.

Pillay’s “independence, her expertise and steadfastness have made her one of the most respected international jurists of our time”.

The 85-year-old jurist has built a formidable reputation during a decades-long career that took her from South African courts to the ICC and International Tribunal for Rwanda.

She gained global prominence for her outspoken condemnation of government repression of popular protests in the Arab world, including Libya and Syria.

She reacted to the news by making a quip about US President Donald Trump’s well-documented desire to win the prize himself.

“If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump,” Pillay said during a standing ovation captured by Amnesty International secretary-general Agnes Callamard in Nuremberg and posted on the social network X.

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.

Pillay told AFP at the time that her team had shared “thousands of pieces of information” with prosecutors at the International Criminal Court.

Israel categorically rejected the report’s findings, slamming it as “distorted and false”.

‘Courage to speak the truth’

The Nobel committee said that while its prize honoured Pillay’s career of fighting genocide, it was not taking a stand on whether Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide.

“We are not the court,” Frydnes told AFP.

“It’s her report, the Commission’s report. … It will be decided by the International Court of Justice,” he said.

Speaking on Friday after her standing ovation, Pillay noted that many had paid tribute to her courage in that report.

“You can imagine how surprised I was. Why would you need courage to speak the truth?”

The UN said her prize was a “testament to the need and to the value of human rights in this world more than ever”.

The International Criminal Court meanwhile said her award was of “particular significance” given current attacks on international law.

The Nobel committee echoed that sentiment in its statement, noting that “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.”

‘Needs to stop’

The prize for Pillay is sure to anger Trump, whose administration has repeatedly attacked international justice institutions.

“This is a clear message to those who are putting pressure on these institutions, to those who are sanctioning the judges and are attacking the institutions. That needs to stop,” Frydnes told AFP after the announcement.

Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump has made no secret of his desire to win the prize, insisting that he was the most deserving candidate and claiming to have ended up to eight wars.

“They have a reputation for maybe not giving it to people like me … and I think it would be a great discredit to them,” Trump had said on Wednesday.

But his war against Iran, his territorial expansion ambitions as in Greenland, his hard line on migrants, and his attacks on multilateralism and the media have, according to experts in Oslo, disqualified him for the prize.

Last year, the prize went to Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, a choice generally considered palatable to Trump.

Machado even gave him her Nobel gold medal, judging he deserved it after the capture of President Nicolas Maduro — though she failed to obtain his political backing in exchange.

The Nobel committee has said it is not swayed by external pressures.

“Of course we have to discuss it, but it’s not like that influences the discussions in the room and decisions that come out,” the secretary of the committee, Kristian Berg Harpviken, told AFP ahead of the prize announcement.

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 Dec 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of the prizes’ creator, Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.