OSLO — South African jurist Navanethem "Navi" Pillay has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for what the Norwegian Nobel Committee described as her efforts to promote peace and international law.

The committee announced the award in Oslo at 11 a.m. Central European Summer Time on Friday, October 9. It said Pillay's career has held states and political leaders accountable while offering hope to people affected by violence and conflict.

Career spans apartheid cases and international courts

Pillay, 85, was the first non-white woman appointed to South Africa's High Court. Her legal career began under apartheid, when she defended political prisoners and activists, including people associated with Nelson Mandela.

She later served as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, becoming its president, and as a judge of the International Criminal Court. From 2008 to 2014, she was the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The committee said that work formed a consistent record of using international law to seek accountability for grave abuses. Pillay also chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. A 2025 report by that commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza; Israel rejected that finding as false and biased.

Award ceremony set for December

The prize carries an award of 12 million Swedish kronor, about US$1.2 million at current exchange rates. It is scheduled to be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.

Pillay succeeds Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, who received the 2025 Peace Prize. The peace award is selected by the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee, unlike the science and literature prizes announced in Stockholm.

Sources: Norwegian Nobel Committee announcement, October 9; Reuters report, October 9; United Nations biography.

Lead image: Navi Pillay at the UN Human Rights Council in June 2014, photographed by the U.S. Mission Geneva via Wikimedia Commons, public domain; file photograph, not an image of the 2026 Nobel announcement.