The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded Friday to South Africa’s Navi Pillay, the judge who headed the Rwanda genocide tribunal and who last year presided over a UN commission which accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.
Pillay, currently a judge on the International Court of
Justice in a case where Myanmar also stands accused of genocide, has been
“instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and
genocide are prosecuted,” said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the chair of the Norwegian
Nobel Committee in Oslo.
“In historic international court cases, she has shown that
legal measures can help prevent acts of war and violence,” the committee said.
Pillay’s “independence, her expertise and steadfastness have
made her one of the most respected international jurists of our time.”
She reacted to the news by making a quip about US President
Donald Trump’s well-documented desire to win the prize himself.
“If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with
Trump,” the 85-year-old said during a standing ovation captured by Amnesty
International Secretary General Agnes Callamard in Nuremberg and posted on the
social network X.
Pillay headed the UN Independent International Commission of
Inquiry (COI), which does not speak on behalf of the world body, and which last
year found that genocide was occurring in Gaza.
Pillay told AFP at the time that her team had shared
“thousands of pieces of information” with prosecutors at the International
Criminal Court.
Israel categorically rejected the report’s findings,
slamming it as “distorted and false”.
– ‘Courage to speak the truth’ –
The Nobel committee said that while its prize honoured
Pillay’s career of fighting genocide, it was not taking a stand on whether
Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide.
“We are not the court,” Frydnes told AFP.
“It’s her report, the Commission’s report… It will be
decided by the International Court of Justice,” he said.
Speaking on Friday after her standing ovation, Pillay noted
that many had paid tribute to her courage in that report.
“You can imagine how surprised I was. Why would you need
courage to speak the truth?”
The UN said her prize was a “testament to the need and to
the value of human rights in this world more than ever”.
The International Criminal Court meanwhile said her award
was of “particular significance” given current attacks on international law.
The Nobel committee echoed that sentiment in its statement,
noting that “at a time of existential challenges — including more wars and
conflicts than the world has seen in a long time — international law is no
longer just a supplement to peace and security.”
“It is an absolute necessity.”
– ‘Needs to stop’ –
The prize for Pillay is sure to anger Trump, whose
administration has repeatedly attacked international justice institutions.
“This is a clear message to those who are putting pressure
on these institutions, to those who are sanctioning the judges and are
attacking the institutions. That needs to stop,” Frydnes told AFP after the
announcement.
Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Trump
has made no secret of his desire to win the prize, insisting that he was the
most deserving candidate and claiming to have ended up to eight wars.
“They have a reputation for maybe not giving it to people
like me .. and I think it would be a great discredit to them,” Trump had said
on Wednesday.
But his war against Iran, his territorial expansion
ambitions as in Greenland, his hard line on migrants, and his attacks on
multilateralism and the media have, according to experts in Oslo, disqualified
him for the prize.
Last year, the prize went to Venezuelan opposition leader
Maria Corina Machado, a choice generally considered palatable to Trump.
Machado even gave him her Nobel gold medal, judging he
deserved it after the capture of President Nicolas Maduro — though she failed
to obtain his political backing in exchange.
The Nobel committee has said it is not swayed by external
pressures.
“Of course we have to discuss it, but it’s not like that
influences the discussions in the room and decisions that come out,” the
secretary of the committee, Kristian Berg Harpviken, told AFP ahead of the
prize announcement.
The prize comes with a gold medal, a diploma and a prize sum
of $1.2 million.
The award will be presented at a formal ceremony in Oslo on
December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of the prizes’ creator, Swedish
inventor and philanthropist Alfred Nobel.
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