The South African Muslim Network extends its congratulations to Judge Navanethem “Navi” Pillay on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026. Her commitment to human rights, justice and peace is evident in a lifetime of service to people in South Africa and across the world.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the award in Oslo on Friday, 9 October 2026. It is the 125th Nobel Peace Prize, and it will be presented in Oslo on 10 December.

A Lifetime in the Service of Justice

Judge Pillay was born in Durban in 1941. In 1967 she became the first woman to open a law practice in what was then the province of Natal, and she spent the apartheid years defending political detainees — work that included acting for anti-apartheid activists at a time when doing so carried a cost. In 1995 she became the first woman of colour appointed to the South African High Court.

She went on to serve as a judge and then President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where the jurisprudence she helped establish recognised rape and sexual violence as capable of constituting crimes against humanity and genocide — a change in international law that the Nobel Committee singled out. She served as a judge of the International Criminal Court from 2003 to 2008, and as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014.

She chaired the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which in 2025 determined that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. She currently sits as judge ad hoc at the International Court of Justice in the case concerning the Rohingya, brought by The Gambia against Myanmar.

What the Committee Said

The Committee said Judge Pillay had been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted, and that in the present moment “international law is no longer just a supplement to peace and security. It is an absolute necessity.”

The Committee’s chair, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, said the system of international law is under tremendous pressure and its institutions are under attack, and spoke of judges “who guard the thin red line between order and chaos.”

“Why Would You Need Courage to Speak the Truth?”

Asked about the courage it took to publish the Gaza findings, Judge Pillay answered with a question of her own: “Why would you need courage to speak the truth?”

Perhaps that is the best inspiration she offers the next generation of activists. It is not a claim to fearlessness. It is a refusal to accept that honesty should require any. A great deal of what passes for prudence in public life is the quiet decision not to say a true thing because of what saying it might cost — and a career like hers is the standing argument against it.

That she is a daughter of Durban, who began in a profession that did not want her and ended at the highest courts in the world, should make the point sharper for every young South African reading this.

Source

“2026 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Navi Pillay”, Al Jazeera, 9 October 2026 — read the report.

Shared by the South African Muslim Network in the interest of recognising those who have given their lives to peace, justice and human rights.