Navi Pillay Wins Nobel Peace Prize
The Sydney Peace Foundation is delighted that 2025 Sydney Peace Prize Laureate, Navi Pillay, has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.
On the 9th of October, Navi Pillay, former United Nations Human Rights Chief, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for her efforts to promote peace and international law”.
She dedicated her prize to “all the survivors of international crimes”.
Her award comes at a time when international law is under attack. Hours after the Prize was announced, the US declared that it will impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC), where Navi served as a judge for almost a decade, possibly as a response to the Nobel announcement. The ICC works to investigate and prosecute genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression. The ICC said the sanctions are “an assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order which strikes at the simple principle that no one stands above the law”.
At 85, Navi Pillay remains one of the world’s distinguished people in human rights and international law.
Her commitment to justice began with her defending anti-apartheid activists in South Africa and worked to advance the rights of those facing discrimination and oppression. Navi made history as the first woman of colour to serve on the High Court of South Africa when she was personally appointed by Nelson Mandela. She went on to serve in senior roles at the United Nations and the International Criminal Court. Throughout a career which has spanned several decades, she has played leading roles in investigations into alleged human rights violations in Rwanda, Myanmar and Gaza. Most recently, she was Chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which determined Israel’s actions in Gaza to be a genocide.
This marks the second time a Sydney Peace Prize Laureate has later gone on to win a Nobel Peace Prize. The inaugural recipient of the Sydney Peace Prize in 1998, Professor Muhammad Yunus, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize eight years later in 2006.
Two Sydney Peace Prize Laureates had previously received Nobel Prizes: 1999 Sydney Peace Prize Laureate Archbishop Demond Tutu was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, and 2018 Sydney Peace Prize Laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz was awarded a Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001.
With this latest honour, Navi becomes South Africa’s fifth Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Navi’s Nobel Peace Prize recognition highlights a lifetime dedicated to defending human rights, strengthening international law and promoting accountability for some of the world’s most serious crimes.