Nobel Peace Prize for Navi Pillay, South African lawyer and defender of the law

The laureate was announced in Oslo at 11:00 on Friday by Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. This year the committee received 287 nominations: 208 individuals and 79 organisations.

A life in the courts

Navi Pillay is 85. She was born in Durban on 23 September 1941. As a lawyer in South Africa she defended Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists. According to Polsat News, she was the first non-white woman to sit on South Africa's top court.

She later served as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and was its president from 1999 to 2003. She also sat on the International Criminal Court in The Hague. From 2008 to 2014 she was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2025 she finished chairing a UN commission of inquiry on Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The committee's reasons

Frydnes called Navi Pillay one of the great defenders of the law living in our time. He said she has a solid moral compass.

In its statement, the committee wrote that “international law is no longer just a supplement to peace and security. It is an absolute necessity.”

The prize is worth 12 million Swedish kronor. It will be presented in Oslo on 10 December.