South African judge Navanethem “Navi” Pillay won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday “for her efforts to promote peace and international law,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said.
“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 committee said.
The peace prize is the fifth Nobel awarded this week, after literature, chemistry, physics and medicine. Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the award in 2025.
The Nobel Peace Prize, worth 12 million Swedish crowns, or about $1.2 million, is due to be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the death of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, who founded the awards in his 1895 will.
Navanethem 'Navi' Pillay was born in Durban South Africa to immigrant parents of Tamil origin in 1941. She attended the University of Natal where she earned a Bachelor of Arts and later a Bachelor of Law.
In 1967, she started her own law firm, becoming the first woman to ever do so in her home province of Natal, South Africa. She was also the first non-white woman to serve as a judge in the High Court of South Africa.
Pillay has served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights under Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon from 2008-2014.
She also served on various international legal roles including President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, a judge of the International Criminal Court and a Commissioner of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty.
One of the Pillay's notable cases is one of The Prosecutor v Jean-Paul Akayesu where Pillay established an international legal precedent that considered rape as a form of genocide and a crime against humanity.
She currently serves as an adhoc judge of the International Court of Justice in the case of Gambia v Myanmar.
Here's your AnewZ Daily Brief for 9 October 2026 with five key developments from the CIS summit in Turkmenistan....
Leaders of countries from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have agreed to hold coordinated population censuses around 2030. They took t...
South African judge Navanethem “Navi” Pillay won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday “for her eff...
Leaders of countries from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) have agreed to hold coordinated population censuses around 2030. They took the decision at the CIS Council of Heads of State meeting in Awaza, Turkmenistan on Friday, media reported.
Russia struck Ukraine overnight in one of the biggest attacks of the conflict, killing at least 19 people, Kyiv's Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. Around 70 missiles were fired at Ukraine during the attack, as well as drones, the Ministry said.
The Saudi-led coalition says it has carried out a series of military operations against Houthi targets in Yemen after attacks on two Saudi airports left three people dead and dozens injured.
Azerbaijan and the five Central Asian states have signed two key documents at the 8th Consultative Meeting of Heads of State in Turkmenbashi, formalising a broader framework for regional cooperation in transport, trade, energy, digitalisation and security.
It started with classrooms. Too many students, not enough teachers, deteriorating buildings and growing anxiety over what comes after high school. But within weeks, a movement that began outside French lycées had spread across the country.
U.S. federal immigration agents shot and wounded a man in a car with a five-year-old boy inside in New York City’s Bronx neighbourhood on Thursday, city officials, police and witnesses say.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has sharply criticised the United States following a series of Russian attacks that killed more than 70 people over two days, arguing that Washington is not doing enough to help Kyiv counter Moscow's continued assault.
Britain and Israel have reached a temporary compromise over the future of the British Consulate General in East Jerusalem, easing a diplomatic dispute that had threatened to further strain relations between the two countries.
The United States has unveiled a new round of sanctions targeting Iran's energy exports, taking aim at vessels, companies and individuals accused of helping move Iranian crude oil, petroleum products and petrochemicals to overseas markets.
The Trump administration has launched a major expansion of its immigration enforcement agenda, restricting access to a key employment-based green card process for several of the world's largest technology and outsourcing companies.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment