Nobel Peace Prize Honors UN Jurist Navi Pillay for Gaza Genocide Findings

Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, an experienced jurist who chaired a United Nations commission that found Israel responsible for genocide in Gaza, received the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her dedication to advancing peace and international law.

The Nobel Committee stressed that strong international judicial institutions must uphold the rule of law to effectively mediate the world’s growing conflicts.

It also warned that political attacks against judges and the foundations of international law are becoming more frequent.

Pillay’s extensive career as a lawyer and judge includes recent, decisive commentary on the Israel‑Hamas conflict.

Navi Pillay, who won the Nobel Peace Prize on Oct. 9, 2026, speaks during a briefing to UN member states about ongoing investigations of the Commission at the UN offices in Geneva, on April 16, 2024. (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP)

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She chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, established in 2021 after a surge in tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.

In September 2025, nearly two years after the Oct. 7 attacks, the commission concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, while also accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant of inciting genocide.

“It is clear that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention,” Pillay said after the commission’s report was released.

At the time, Israel dismissed the findings as “distorted and false.”

A view of the destruction after an Israeli attack on Khan Yunis, Gaza, Palestine on Oct. 9, 2026. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, president of the Israel-based Shurat HaDin Law Center, expressed skepticism about the Nobel Committee’s decision to award Pillay the peace prize.

“A peace prize should honor those who build peace, not those accused of turning Israel into a defendant in a campaign of political delegitimization,” said Darshan-Leitner, whose organization has led protest campaigns in Geneva against Pillay. “What peace, exactly, has she brought? The Middle East remains engulfed in conflict, and the region is nowhere near the peace this prize supposedly celebrates.”

Pillay, 85, was born in South Africa’s Natal province to a Tamil Indian family. Her legal career began in 1967 when she founded her own law firm, becoming the first non‑white practitioner in her province.

Navi Pillay poses in her office at the Palais Wilson, headquarters of the specialized UN agency as she takes up her post on Sept. 1, 2008 in Geneva (Fabrice Coffrini / AFP)

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During her 28 years as a defense attorney in South Africa, she represented anti‑apartheid activists. In 1973 she secured the right for political prisoners on Robben Island—including Nelson Mandela—to consult with lawyers.

Two decades later Mandela became president and, in 1995, nominated her to the High Court of South Africa, making her the first non‑white woman to serve there.

Her tenure was brief because that same year the United Nations elected her to serve on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, a body created to prosecute those responsible for the Rwandan genocide.

She played a pivotal role in the case against Jean‑Paul Akayesu, mayor of the Rwandan town of Taba, who was found guilty of inciting fellow Hutus to murder, rape, and torture thousands of Tutsis.

On May 25, 1994, children stand next to a pile of machetes that were used to kill Tutsis in Rwanda. (Scott Peterson/Liaison)

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That ruling established that rape can be prosecuted as a crime against humanity and may constitute genocide when intended to destroy a protected group.

“Rape had always been regarded as one of the spoils of war,” Pillay said after the verdict. “Now it is a war crime, no longer a trophy.”

In 2003 she was chosen to serve as a judge on the International Criminal Court (ICC), an institution frequently challenged by President Donald Trump as illegitimate.

Rockets are launched towards Israel from Gaza City on May 18, 2021. (Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images)

After five years on the ICC, Pillay became the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2008. While in that role she condemned both Israel and Hamas for likely violating international law during the 2014 Gaza War.

She also criticized the United States for funding Israel’s Iron Dome program when comparable protection was not provided to Gazans against artillery fire.

Pillay currently serves as an ad hoc judge on the International Court of Justice, where she is hearing a case accusing Myanmar of committing genocide against the Rohingya, a predominantly Muslim minority in Southeast Asia.

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