The Norwegian Nobel Committee on Friday awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to South African jurist Navanethem "Navi" Pillay. Pillay chaired the "United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory", which concluded last year that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Israel dismissed that report.
The committee honored Pillay "for her efforts to promote peace and international law," The Jerusalem Post reported.
"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 said.
Pillay served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, the fifth person to hold the post. Arutz Sheva reported that she also presided over the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and sat as a judge at the International Criminal Court. The outlet added that she is known in Israel for her positions critical of the country.
The UN human rights office welcomed the award on Friday. "It is amazing news, we need more dedication and commitment to human rights," Shabia Mantoo, the office's spokesperson, told reporters in Geneva.
The prize is worth 12 million Swedish crowns, roughly $1.2 million. The ceremony will take place in Oslo on December 10, the date Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel died. He created the awards in his will in 1895. Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado received last year's prize for her struggle for democracy in her country.
