Navi Pillay wins Nobel Peace Prize for promoting peace and international law

Durban, South Africa. Navi Pillay, a former International Criminal Court judge who oversaw a UN report concluding that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday “for her efforts to promote peace and international law”.

Committee highlights pressure on international law

The Nobel committee said this year’s peace prize underlined the importance of maintaining an organised international order.

“The system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack,” it said in its citation.

“We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice. Whenever might overtakes right, it undermines stability, trust and peaceful co-existence.”

The committee said Pillay had held states and national leaders accountable, brought hope to victims of violence and conflict, and demonstrated a firm moral compass throughout her long career.

“A common thread runs from her early work defending Nelson Mandela and others who stood up against apartheid to her service as a judge in some of the key international court cases of our time,” the citation said.

Career in international justice and human rights

Pillay, 85, was born in Durban, in South Africa’s Natal province, to a family of Indian Tamil origin. She has served as a judge on several international courts, including the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

She also chaired the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which concluded last year that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel dismissed the report as “scandalous”.

Pillay has also served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In 1967, she became the first woman to start a law practice in Natal and the first non-white woman to serve on South Africa’s High Court.