Former UN human rights chief and International Court of Justice judge Navi Pillay has been awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. The South African judge was recognised "for her efforts to promote peace and international law", which paved the way for a "more comprehensive global legal order", the Nobel committee said.

Pillay, 85, has taken part in high-profile work considering allegations of human rights violations during a decades-long career, including in Rwanda, Myanmar and Gaza. Her early work included defending anti-apartheid activists in South Africa, and on Friday she became the country's fifth Peace Prize winner - following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Pillay's work had been "instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted", said the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee Jørgen Watne Frydnes." Navi Pillay's commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass are constants in a long career," he said."

At a time of existential challenges - including more wars and conflicts than the world has seen in a long time - international law is no longer just a supplement to peace and security. It is an absolute necessity."

Shortly afterwards, Pillay reacted to the news from Nuremberg's Palace of Justice by saying "it must be a joke" and thanked those who had gathered to applaud her." If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump," she joked.

Navanethem " Navi" Pillay grew up in South Africa during apartheid as a bus driver's daughter in a poor Indian section of Durban. She went on to become the first woman to establish a law practice in Natal Province in 1967, and later the first non-white woman to be appointed to the country's high court.

Pillay served as a judge on the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda - focused on the 1994 genocide in which 800,000 people were killed - including four years as its president. She was elected to the International Criminal Court in 2003.

From 2021-25, she chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory - a fact-finding body established by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate alleged violations of international law. The commission concluded that Israel had committed genocidal acts in Gaza and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, had "incited the commission of genocide" in their speeches and statements.