The Peace Laureate: I thought something had happened to my children

The Nobel Committee in Oslo had not managed to reach the 85-year-old South African jurist Navi Pillay before they announced that she had been named this year's peace prize winner. But the members in Oslo had unusually good timing with their announcement. Pillay was at a seminar in the historic courtroom number 600 in Nuremberg, where the first sentences against the criminals of the Nazi regime were handed down 80 years ago, when the news broke.

- I sat here in my own thoughts and listened to the panel, I love these delegates and their research. It was a total surprise when I was asked to come out for something important and then they asked me to sit down. I had time to think the worst, that something had happened to my children, says Navi Pillay at a spontaneously arranged press meeting in Nuremberg.

Pillay is awarded this year's peace prize for his "efforts to promote peace and international law". After a long career as a defense lawyer in apartheid-era South Africa, in the 1990s she became a judge at the Rwandan Tribunal and later became the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Her biggest commitment in recent years has been as chair of the UN panel that found Israel guilty of genocide, a commitment that expired last year.

In a comment published on X, Israel's Foreign Ministry writes that "now that the Nobel Committee has awarded the biggest lie of the 21st century, Joseph Goebbels is sure to be applauding in hell," referring to the Nazi propaganda minister.

Pillay is in the German city to participate in the Nuremberg Forum, an annual discussion forum that brings together scholars, lawyers and activists who defend the principles established in Nuremberg after World War II.

Over the years, a number of states have been opposed to these principles, but in recent years the resistance has gone from passive to active, and not least the US has attacked the International Criminal Court ICC in several different ways. Pillay himself sits as an ad hoc judge in the sister court ICJ but singled out the ICC in his brief address.

- This changed reality in the world can be seen through the attacks on the International Criminal Court ICC. They risk throwing us back into a world where they forcefully decide who is right. I hope we can return to an international order guided by principles, says Pillay.

She then sent a reminder to the outside world:

- My message to world leaders is that they are under legal compulsion to protect human rights, avoid war and implement the UN Charter. That is something I demand from all states.

She wonders if it was meant for her to be in Nuremberg when she got the news. A message that was not expected - Pillay had not been mentioned in any preliminary talk and she herself says that she had not believed in any more awards after the age of 85.

But in the world of international law, she is far from unknown. One of the few questions allowed at the press conference was about what accomplishment she is most proud of during her career.

- I do not want to diminish our opposition to apartheid, or to have become the first non-white woman to be nominated to the Supreme Court in South Africa. But if there is something I am particularly proud of, it is how we, with the Rwanda Tribunal, changed the view of rape and sexual violence that was previously seen as unintended effects of war or a kind of reward for the victor, she says.

Last year's prize winner María Corina Machado dedicated her prize to US President Donald Trump, who was heavily criticized by Pillay, among other things, in a DN interview last winter. Pillay does not single out any individual to honor with his award.

- I dedicate this award to all survivors of international crimes and all defenders of international justice who ensure that impunity is not allowed to prevail, she says.