Navi Pillay wins Nobel after leading UN finding of Israel’s genocide in Gaza

The announcement came on the same day Washington imposed further sanctions on the International Criminal Court [ICC]. South African jurist Navi Pillay has been named the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for promoting peace and international law, just over a year after the UN commission she chaired concluded that Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the award on Friday, October 9, as international legal institutions face growing pressure over efforts to hold Israeli leaders accountable for crimes committed in Gaza.Pillay is a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and International Criminal Court [ICC] judge. Announcing the award, the committee warned that international law was under “tremendous pressure” and its institutions were “under attack”.She chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel. In September 2025, the commission found that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.Reacting to the award at a legal conference in Nuremberg, Germany, Pillay pointed to the Gaza report as her most recent work.“The last thing I did is the delivery of the report on Gaza, naming what’s happening there as genocide,” she said. “Why would you need courage to speak the truth?”The announcement came on the same day Washington imposed further sanctions on the ICC.The court issued arrest warrants in 2024 for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.Pillay has also served as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and South Africa’s High Court. Her decades of work in international justice began under apartheid, when she defended political prisoners and opponents of the system.Pillay becomes the fifth South African to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, joining previous laureates including Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.