Israel a rare dissenting voice as praise pours in for Nobel Peace Prize winner Navi Pillay

Navi Pillay, a South African-born jurist and former UN human rights chief whose career has spanned from defending the rights of an imprisoned Nelson Mandela to leading a panel that found that Israel committed genocide in Gaza , won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her efforts to promote international law as it comes under attack. Her win signals a high-profile rebuke to US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu , who have both rejected the findings of the UN commission she led on Gaza. The leaders also have been highly critical of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court; Pillay has worked at both. Pillay’s work “is a source of hope and inspiration to all those who seek to bring about a more peaceful world”, said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, in announcing her win in Oslo, Norway, as part of the peace prize’s 125th anniversary. Read more South Africa's Navi Pillay wins 2026 Nobel Peace Prize The committee said it sought to strengthen international law at a time of conflict, and Watne Frydnes said Pillay’s award was a message to those seeking to undermine “the international rules-based system and the institutions”. To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Try again Cover image: © France 24 04:35 Pillay, 85, received the news while attending a forum in Nuremberg, Germany, where the trials of Nazi war criminals helped lay the foundations of international law. She was in the same room where the trials were held when the prize was announced in Norway. “Perhaps it was meant to be that I was in this historic Courtroom 600” of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, she said. She said efforts to weaken international criminal justice “endanger the progress painstakingly made since Nuremberg, and they risk returning us to a world in which power, rather than law, determines whose suffering matters”. World leaders, she added, have a “legal obligation to protect human rights and refrain from war”. Pillay chaired the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel , which was created by the UN-backed Human Rights Council. The commission a year ago concluded Israel was responsible for genocide in Gaza with a specific intent to destroy Palestinians in Gaza. Read more Israel is committing 'genocide' in Gaza, UN investigators say Gaza was among Pillay’s first comments Friday after hearing she had won. “What’s happening there is genocide,” she said in Germany, to more applause. The commission last year also found that the Israeli president, prime minister and former defence minister "have incited the commission of genocide”. Israel, which has refused to cooperate with the commission since it was established in 2021, has strenuously denied the accusations. Pillay has repeatedly rebuffed critics who accused her of anti-Semitism or turning a blind eye to the Hamas attacks in Israel. Under her leadership, the commission also issued reports accusing Hamas of war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack. A senior Hamas official, Bassem Naim, in a statement Friday called the Nobel for Pillay a message of hope for Palestinians, especially in Gaza, that “humanity still resists the forces of evil targeting international justice”. The Israeli foreign ministry, meanwhile, said in a statement that “if there were an award for lies, hatred, and blood libels, Navi Pillay wouldn’t just be a contender. She’d be a frontrunner”. The ministry added on X that the award “isn’t a recognition of justice. It’s the grotesque weaponization of an award to legitimize anti-Israel hatred and prejudice”. Champion of international law It was a rare dissenting voice amid a chorus of praise for Pillay and the Nobel Committee’s choice, which UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said honoured those who fight to defend international law and human rights. “For decades, she has been a champion of international law and human rights, and a steadfast, independent voice of justice amidst some of the most historic international legal cases of our time,” Guterres said about Pillay, a former UN rights chief. “Today's prize is a tribute to all those working to uphold and defend international law, the rule of law and human rights, and secure peace, justice and human dignity,” he said in a statement. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, one of Pillay's successors in that post, hailed a “particularly poignant” award “at a time when human rights are under attack on so many fronts, including from those who wield enormous power”. He added: “It is an award to all those who, around the world, dedicate their lives to the defence of human rights — often at great risk to their security.” To display this content from YouTube, you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices One of your browser extensions seems to be blocking the video player from loading. To watch this content, you may need to disable it on this site. Try again Cover image: © France 24 06:13 EU chief Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Pillay for confronting “some of humanity's darkest chapters”. In a post on X, von der Leyen wrote: “She has looked the brutality of injustice in the eye and never looked away. She is the defender of the persecuted, the vulnerable, the voiceless and the excluded.” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa celebrated the “contributions (Pillay) has made to strengthen peace, uphold human dignity and bring hope in South Africa and to peoples globally”. There was praise, too, from rights groups, including Human Rights Watch chief Philippe Bolopion, who hailed her “profound influence in South Africa, Rwanda, the Occupied Palestinian Territory, and as leader of the UN’s human rights”. Bolopion added: “At a time when international justice is under threat from rights-rejecting leaders, she has been a stalwart proponent of the international rule of law and impartial human rights work.” Pillay's win brings renewed attention to Trump’s ongoing feud with the International Criminal Court, where she served as a judge from 2003 to 2008. The Trump administration already has sanctioned 13 of the ICC’s staff members, among them key prosecutors and nine judges, including the court’s Japanese President Tomoko Akane. In his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month, Trump called the court an “out of control institution” and an “anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction” over the US. He urged member states to quit the court. There are fears the court as a whole could be sanctioned, a move that could seriously hamper its ability to mete out justice. Pillay teased the US president even as she learned of the award on Friday. In a video posted to X by the Secretary General of Amnesty International, which showed the Nobel laureate being applauded after the announcement of the prize, Pillay quipped: “If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump.” 'If you clap a little more I may share this prize with Trump': Pillay reacts to Nobel Peace Prize win To display this content from X (Twitter), you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices (FRANCE 24 with AP)