Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Navi Pillay
South African human rights lawyer Navanethem “Navi” Pillay has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
Born in 1941 into an Indian-origin family in Durban, Pillay grew up under apartheid and became one of South Africa’s first women of Indian descent to practice law. She defended anti-apartheid activists and fought against discriminatory prison conditions.
After apartheid, she became a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she helped establish landmark legal precedents recognizing rape as an act of genocide. She later served as a judge at the International Criminal Court and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014.
