OSLO: The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday (Oct 9) to South Africa’s Navi Pillay, the decide who headed the Rwanda genocide tribunal and who final 12 months presided over a UN fee which accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Pillay, at present a decide on the Worldwide Courtroom of Justice in a case the place Myanmar additionally stands accused of genocide, has been “instrumental in making certain that battle crimes, crimes in opposition to humanity, and genocide are prosecuted”, stated Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo.
Pillay headed the UN Impartial Worldwide Fee of Inquiry (COI), which doesn’t converse on behalf of the world physique, and which final 12 months discovered that genocide was occurring in Gaza.
Pillay instructed AFP on the time that her group had shared “hundreds of items of knowledge” with prosecutors on the Worldwide Legal Courtroom.
The UN stated the prize for Pillay was testimony to the “worth” of rights.
The Nobel jury stated it was honouring her at a time when “the system of worldwide regulation is underneath super strain and its establishments are underneath assault.”
“At a time of existential challenges – together with extra wars and conflicts than the world has seen in a very long time – worldwide regulation is now not only a complement to peace and safety. It’s an absolute necessity,” Watnes stated.
“Navi Pillay’s dedication to common authorized ideas and her agency ethical compass are constants in an extended profession,” the committee stated.
The prize – the final word diplomatic and humanitarian accolade – is certain to irk US President Donald Trump, whose administration has repeatedly attacked worldwide justice establishments.
Since returning to the White Home in January 2025, Trump has made no secret of his want to win the prize.
“Should you clap a bit bit extra, I’ll share this prize with Trump,” Pillay stated to a standing ovation captured by Amnesty Worldwide Secretary Common Agnes Callamard in Nuremberg and posted on the social community X.
Final 12 months, the prize went to Venezuelan opposition chief Maria Corina Machado, who subsequently gave her Nobel gold medal to Trump.
The prize comes with a gold medal, a diploma and a prize sum of US$1.2 million.
The award can be offered at a proper ceremony in Oslo on Dec 10, the anniversary of the 1896 dying of the prizes’ creator, Swedish inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.
The Peace Prize is the one Nobel awarded in Oslo, with the opposite disciplines introduced in Stockholm.
On Thursday, the Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to Canadian poet Anne Carson for her fashionable twists on Greek mythology and antiquity which have impressed new types of writing.
The 2026 Nobel season winds up Monday with the economics prize.
