Who is Navi Pillay, winner of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize? | Genocide News | Al Jazeera

Navi Pillay, a South African judge born in Durban in 1940, was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, becoming the fifth South African recipient. The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised her decades of efforts to prosecute genocide and war crimes, including her leadership in a UN inquiry that found Israel responsible for genocide in Gaza. She previously defended anti-apartheid activists, served on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014.