Indian-origin Navi Pillay wins Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 has been awarded to Navanethem "Navi" Pillay.

Pillay is a South African jurist who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014.

The Indian-origin Pillay, 85, was recognized for her efforts to promote peace and international law, said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

"At a time when the number of wars and conflicts is rising, and when judges and institutions of international law are under political attack, the Nobel Committee wishes to issue a reminder that the ability to resolve conflicts without force or violence is dependent on the international rule of law," the committee wrote in a news release.

"An international legal system in which war criminals are held to account and the victims of abuse see justice served is a precondition for a peaceful world."

The award is often considered the most prestigious honour on the planet.

This year marks the 125th anniversary of the peace prize.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee said: "Navi Pillay’s commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass are constants in a long career. Born into a family of Indian Tamil origin under apartheid in Durban, South Africa, Pillay became a lawyer and legal pioneer, confronting deep structural discrimination, segregation and exclusion. 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."

Pillay has served as a judge on the High Court in South Africa, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court. She was the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and, until recently, she chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

"Today Navi Pillay is a judge on the International Court of Justice in the case where Myanmar stands accused of genocide," the committee said.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo received nominations for 287 candidates for this year's prize, and just over a quarter of them are organisations. Experts say the committee typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals.

Last year, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, winning recognition as a woman "who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness."

Four of this year's Nobels were announced earlier this week. The Nobel for medicine went to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works. The physics award recognised a scientist's efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos. The chemistry prize recognized two scientists for untangling mysterious mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs.

Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson won the literature prize Thursday for "bold and inventive" works that fuse the classical and the modern and blur the boundaries of poetry and prose.

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced Monday.

The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, small group of laureates or organisation.

This year marks the 125th anniversary of the peace prize, which so far has gone to 112 individuals and 28 separate institutions since its inception in 1901. The Red Cross has won three times and the UN refugee agency twice.

The prize has gone unawarded on 19 occasions, most of them during the world wars. In 1948, the year Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, no prize was awarded; he had been nominated 12 times and never won.

In 1939, a Swedish member of parliament nominated Adolf Hitler, then withdrew the nomination, saying it was never meant seriously.

- with inputs from AP