The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay for her work ensuring war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted, the Nobel Prize Committee announced Oct. 9.
Pillay, 85, was born in Durban, South Africa to an Indian Tamil family. In 1967, Pillay founded her own law firm and studied at Harvard University where she earned her Doctor of Juridicial Science in 1988.
Pillay’s career has been heavily centered around pursuing justice for victims of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. In 1999, she was appointed President of the International Criminal Tribune for Rwanda where she established the spreading of propaganda, sexual violence and rape could lead to indictment for crimes against humanity and genocide.
Pillay has also served on the International Criminal Court and the UNC Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and from 2008 to 2014 served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Since 2019, Pillay has served as an ad hoc judge on the International Court of Justice prosecuting Myanmar for genocide.
“Navi Pillay has held states and national leaders accountable and brought hope to victims of violence and conflict,” the Nobel Prize Committee said. “In all the positions she has held, she has stressed the responsibility of individuals and states to comply with the rule of law. She has also helped define the relevant norms and legal principles.”
The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901 to Frenchman Frédéric Passy and Swissman Jean Henry Dunant. The Nobel Prize tradition started after the passing of Alfred Nobel. In his will, Nobel left 31.5 million Swedish crowns (1.51 billion U.S. dollars today) to be invested in safe securities and create a fund “the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind.”
Nobel’s will specified the prizes should be awarded in the field of physics, chemistry, medicine or physiology, literature and peace, as well as the criteria for nominees.
Nobel specified the prize for peace should go to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.”
Pillay joins a long list of Nobel Peace Prize winners that includes former U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (1906), The International Committee of the Red Cross (1917, 1944, 1963), Civil Rights activist Martin Luther King, Jr., missionary Mother Theresa (1979), Holocaust survivor and political activist Elie Wiesel (1986), anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela (1993) and Pakistani activist and youngest Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai (2014).
The other 2026 Nobel Prize winners are Francis Halzen for Physics, Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai for Chemistry, Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for Physiology/Medicine and Anne Carson for Literature.
