The Nobel Peace Prize has gone to Navi Pillay, whose UN inquiry found Israel committed genocide in Gaza. Israel calls it weaponisation. The right choice?
The committee honoured the South African jurist "for her efforts to promote peace and international law". Her career runs from defending anti-apartheid activists to the Rwanda tribunal and the ICC. Hours after the announcement, the US unveiled sweeping new sanctions on the ICC. Trump, nominated by several countries, had said it would be a "great discredit" not to pick him.
What happened
On 9 October 2026 the Norwegian Nobel Committee gave the Peace Prize to Navi Pillay "for her efforts to promote peace and international law". She defended anti-apartheid activists, was a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the ICC, and was UN human rights chief from 2008 to 2014. She chaired the UN commission of inquiry whose 2025 report found Israel's actions in Gaza constituted genocide. Israel's Foreign Ministry called the award a "grotesque weaponization" of the prize, and hours later US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sweeping sanctions on the ICC.
Why people disagree
Supporters say her career, from fighting apartheid to prosecuting genocide in Rwanda, is exactly the legal work that helps prevent war, and that the prize defends international law at a time when it is under political attack. Critics, led by Israel, which dismissed her commission's report as "scandalous" and "fake", see the award as a political statement on Gaza, and some argue a peace prize should reward people who end conflicts rather than those who judge them.
What's still unclear
Whether the award strengthens support for the ICC or hardens opposition to it, how far the new US sanctions will hamper the court's work, and whether it changes how future Nobel committees weigh legal accountability against peacemaking.
Sources
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