South Africa’s Navanethem ‘Navi’ Pillay wins 2026 Nobel Peace Prize

Member of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, Navanethem Pillay speaks during a press briefing at the United Nations headquarters in New York. Image credit: Reuters/Eduardo Munoz/File Photo

The committee said Pillay held states and national leaders accountable, brought hope to victims of violence and conflict, and demonstrated a firm moral compass throughout her long career.

“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.

Navi Pillay was chair of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory that concluded last year that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Israel dismissed the report as “scandalous”.

“It is amazing news; we need more dedication and commitment to human rights,” Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, told reporters in Geneva.

The peace prize is the fifth Nobel awarded this week, after literature, chemistry, physics and medicine. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won in 2025.

The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 12 million Swedish crowns (about $1.2m), will be presented in Oslo on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.