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During her time at the UN, Pillay contributed to an independent report to the UN Human Rights Council , externalthat accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes.

Around 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage during the Hamas-led attack on Israel three years ago. In its response to the 7 October attack, Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza which has killed more than 74,200 people, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, whose figures are seen as reliable by the UN.

The panel's report, led by Pillay, concluded that members of Hamas "deliberately killed, injured, mistreated, took hostages..." during the 7 October attacks in 2023.

"These actions constitute war crimes and violations and abuses of IHL [International Humanitarian Law] and IHRL [International Humanitarian Law]," it said.

In detailing Hamas's abuses, the report said "many abductions were carried out with significant physical, mental and sexual violence and degrading and humiliating treatment".

The report also concluded that, in its military operations in Gaza since the 7 October attacks, Israel "has committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and violations of IHL and IHRL".

Pillay's team said this was because the Israeli military's use of "heavy weapons with large destructive capacity in densely populated areas constitutes an intentional and direct attack on the civilian population".

Earlier we reported that Pillay had chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which found Israel had committed genocidal acts in Gaza. Israel reacted furiously to that report, rejecting its findings.

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The Nelson Mandela Foundation is the latest organisation to congratulate Navi Pillay on her Nobel Peace Prize win.

"Her recognition is a significant moment for South Africa and for the broader struggle for justice and human dignity," it says.

Her lifelong commitment to these principles reflects the values Nelson Mandela championed and the work that remains necessary to realise a more just world.

Dr Naledi Pandor, chairperson of the board of trustees says Pillay has "given her life to the promotion and support of human rights and is truly deserving of this prize," in an audio note attached to the foundation's X post.

"Her consistent attachment to human rights for all persons marks her as an outstanding recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize," she adds.

Image source, Reuters

UN Secretary General António Guterres says Navi Pillay has been "a steadfast, independent voice of justice amidst some of the most historic international legal cases of our time".

He lists examples including defending Nelson Mandela and others against the apartheid regime, working on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda amid the 1994 genocide, and her role chairing the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

Guterres says that Pillay has shown "the force of law must prevail over the law of force" in her work and says Pillay has shown "defending human rights is the surest safeguard against injustice".

Jack Grey
Live reporter

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Navi Pillay has been named the 2026 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize - here's what you need to know.

Who is she? Pillay is a former UN high commissioner for human rights who began her work during the apartheid era. She became the first non-white woman in South Africa to establish her own law practice and now, aged 85, sits as a judge in the International Court of Justice.

Why has she won? The Norwegian Nobel Committee said she has won the award for "her efforts to promote peace and international law" and praised her for showing that legal measures can help prevent acts of war and violence".

What has she said? Pillay was pulled out of a meeting in Nuremberg to be told she had won the Nobel Peace Prize. "It must be a joke," she said in an impromptu speech to colleagues. Speaking to the press later, she said she was still "reeling with surprise" and dedicated the award to "all the survivors of international crime".

What has the reaction been?

• South African President Cyril Ramaphosa described Pillay as a "pioneering defence attorney for anti-apartheid activists"
• However, Israel - who are highly critical of Pillay's UN-commissioned report on Gaza which ruled that Israel had committed genocidal acts - stated that Pillay being awarded the prize "legitimises anti-Israel hatred and prejudice"
• Volker Turk, UN high commissioner for human rights says his predecessor receiving the Nobel Peace Prize is a "collective win for human rights"

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Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has congratulated Pillay on her win, saying she has "devoted her life to... defending the weak against the powerful".

"From the Government of Spain, we join in the recognition, applaud her work, and reiterate, now more than ever, our support for international organizations tasked with safeguarding peace," Sanchez writes in a statement on X.

While António Costa, president of the European Council, says Pillay's Nobel Peace Prize is a "truly deserved honour at a very timely moment", adding that international law is facing "mounting pressure".

"Her lifelong commitment to human rights, justice and international law reminds us that peace can only endure when dignity, accountability and the rule of law are upheld. The EU stands firmly for these values," he adds.

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Tomoko Akane also congratulates Navi Pillay in a statement, saying: "At a time of profound challenges to the international legal order and the rule of law, this recognition carries particular significance."

The International Criminal Court president says the win is "an important recognition of the vital role that international justice plays as a cornerstone of lasting peace".

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Navi Pillay says she is still "reeling with surprise" but "deeply honoured and grateful" after winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

She tells the press that she dedicates her prize to "all the survivors of international crime" and to the "practitioners and defenders" of international justice.

Attempts to weaken internal law, she says, "risk returning us to a world in which power rather than law determines whose suffering matters".

She says in all of her various positions she has represented the promise to "advance and protect the equal dignity of every human being, and the rights of women and children in particular".

Jean Mackenzie
Correspondent, in Nairobi

A woman of Indian Tamil heritage, Navi Pillay was born into apartheid South Africa and dedicated the first part of her career to fighting that system.

She defended anti-apartheid activists and helped secure rights for political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela.

Pillay also confronted apartheid personally. As a non-white woman, she said no law firm would employ her, so in 1967 she opened her own practice, becoming the first woman to do so in Natal Province.

She went on to become a towering figure in international law. As a judge at the Rwanda criminal tribunal, she helped establish for the first time that rape and sexual violence could constitute acts of genocide.

She later served on the International Criminal Court and as the UN’s human rights chief. Recently, she chaired a UN commission that concluded Israel had committed genocide in Gaza, a finding Israel strongly rejected.

The Nobel Committee praised her lifelong efforts to advance peace and international law.

Navi Pillay found out she had won the Nobel Peace Prize while in Nuremberg.

Speaking to colleagues and friends in an impromptu speech miles away from Oslo, where the award was announced, she says "it must be a joke".

"But, being a lawyer and a judge, I still want to verify this thing," she added.

You can watch more of her comments in the video below:

Nobel committee mounts explicit defence of international lawpublished at 13:01 BST

13:01 BST

James Landale
Diplomatic correspondent

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By honouring Navi Pillay, the Nobel committee is mounting an explicit defence of the post-WWII global order. International law, it says, is "under tremendous pressure", its institutions "under attack".

There is a "shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks".

But it insists nonetheless that "more and more conflicts are being addressed through diplomacy, treaties and legal mechanisms" and that "international law is a foundation for a more peaceful world".

But there are many people in Ukraine, Iran, Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar and elsewhere who might disagree.

They might argue they have been failed by international law and treaties, and that their interests and security are better served instead by force of arms and the support of powerful allies.

As the late Sir Alex Younger, former UK MI6 chief, told the BBC last year: "We are in a new era where international relations are not going to be determined by rules and multi-lateral organisations. They are going to be determined by strong men and deals."

It is against that bleak conclusion the Nobel committee is railing by awarding its prize to someone who is a living embodiment of the other side of the argument.

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Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, says Pillay was the right choice to for the award as she has "played a key role in the development of international law".

Speaking to the BBC, Frydnes says Pillay had spent a "lifetime" at the forefront of developing international law, pointing to her legal career in South Africa, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court case against Myanmar.

Asked about Pillay's UN commission inquiry that found Israel had committed genocidal acts in Gaza, he says the prize has been awarded "for her whole work".

Asked who the Nobel Committee is "pointing the finger at" when it says the norms of international law are under assault, Frydnes says "unfortunately we are pointing the figure at too many, if there were only one it would be easier".

Asked if US President Trump was ever under consideration for the prize, Frydnes says the committee "never comments" on who is nominated.

Pushed again about pressures Trump has placed on the prize - including writing to Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre in January - Frydnes says the committee is not part of the Norwegian government and stays "focused on our task".

Israel's Foreign Ministry says awarding Navi Pillay the Nobel Peace Prize represents a "grotesque weaponization of an award to legitimize anti-Israel hatred and prejudice".

In a statement shared on X, it says "her role in the relentless, politically motivated demonization of Israel and promotion of the genoLIE speaks volumes".

As we reported earlier, Pillay headed a UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, a fact-finding body with no legal authority, which concluded that Israel had committed genocidal acts in Gaza.

Israel reacted furiously to the report, rejecting its findings and accusing the three members of the commission of serving as "Hamas proxies".

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South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa says Pillay "has served humanity with principle and the belief that the world can and should be a better place".

Pillay became the fifth South African winner of the Nobel Peace Prize - following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Ramaphosa describes her as a "pioneering defence attorney for anti-apartheid activists".

He adds that her win "allows us to celebrate the progressive contributions she has made to strengthen peace, uphold human dignity and bring hope in South Africa and to peoples globally".

“The honour bestowed on her reminds us to build a society where every person, whatever their circumstances, can develop their abilities and contribute fully to our nation and the world."

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Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Nobel peace committee, says the organisation would not take a stand on whether the Israeli offensive in Gaza amounted to genocide.

Last year, Pillay headed a United Nations commission, a fact-finding body with no legal authority, which concluded that Israel had committed genocidal acts in Gaza.

"It's her report," Frydnes tells the AFP news agency. "Of course we have great faith in her professionalism, in her integrity, but that work is of a UN inquiry commission."

He says the decision is for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to decide, adding that "the Nobel Committee is not the court".

Israel reacted furiously to the report, rejecting its findings and accusing the three members of the commission of serving as "Hamas proxies".

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Volker Turk, UN high commissioner for human rights says his predecessor receiving the Nobel Peace Prize is a "collective win for human rights".

"I really warmly congratulate my sister, my bigger sister, Navi Pillay, on this fantastic, absolutely fantastic award," Turk says at a UN news conference.

"To say it is well deserved is a total understatement, and especially at a time when human rights are under attack on so many fronts, including from those who wield enormous power," he adds.

Turk says Pillay's award is a "reaffirmation" that human rights, the rule of law and justice, and accountability are "fundamental to everything".

"On behalf of all the colleagues here at the UN Human Rights Office... a very warm congratulations and a big thank you to Navi. You continue to inspire us and millions of others around the world," he adds.

Image source, Reuters

Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnès Callamard was with Pillay in Nuremberg when she found out she had won the award.

She says Pillay is an "inspired choice" for the Nobel Peace Prize.

"Navi’s impressive bio testifies to her work for, and commitment to, international law and international justice," Callamard writes on X.

"At a time when both international law and justice are under attack, when too many states attempt to hollow them out, her Nobel Peace Prize could not come at a better time, Congratulations dear Navi."

Ed Habershon
BBC News Africa

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Navi Pillay today became the fifth South African winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Past winners of the award from South Africa include the former President Nelson Mandela, who became South Africa's first democratically elected leader in 1994 after spending 27 years in prison for his battles against apartheid.

Mandela's predecessor FW De Klerk was also awarded the Peace Prize for his efforts to negotiate the end of apartheid, the releasing of political prisoners including Mandela, and in overseeing the transition to democracy.

The pair shared the award in 1993.

South Africa's other winners include the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who was awarded the prize in 1984 for his role in campaigning against apartheid and the promotion of human rights.

The country's first Peace Prize winner was Albert Luthuli, an early leader of the anti-apartheid African National Congress.

He was awarded the prize in 1961, becoming Africa's first Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

In her impromptu acceptance speech, Pillay says it's appropriate she found out about winning the Nobel Prize while with friends and colleagues who support human rights.

Referring to the report on Gaza she recently completed, she says: "The last thing I did is the delivery of the report on Gaza, naming what's happening there as genocide."

From 2021-25, Pillay chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory - a body established by the UN Human Rights Council to investigate alleged violations of international law.

In 2025 the commission, a fact-finding body with no legal authority, concluded that Israel had commited genocidal acts in Gaza and that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defence minister at the time Yoav Gallant had "incited the commission of genocide" in their speeches and statements.

Israel reacted furiously to the report, rejecting its findings and accusing the three members of the commission of serving as "Hamas proxies".

Image source, Reuters

After being told she has won the Nobel Peace Prize, Navi Pillay jokes that she doesn't quite believe the news is real.

She says she was called away from her desk and a man named Cristoph told her she had won.

"It must be a joke," she says in an impromptu acceptance speech.

"Your applause means everything to me," she says to the small crowd assembled off camera.

"But, being a lawyer and a judge, I still want to verify this thing."

She jokes: "If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump." As a reminder, last year's winner María Corina Machado gave her medal to the US president in January.

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Congratulating Pillay on winning the Nobel Peace Prize, President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen says 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," von der Leyen continues.

She writes on X that few others have devoted their lives to "justice, peace and human dignity" like Navi Pillay did.

"In a world that needs justice more than ever, her courage and moral clarity are a precious compass," she concludes.