Navi Pillay this year's Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Navanethem "Navi" Pillay has with "exceptional courage and integrity shown the way in the development of a global legal order", writes the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Among other things, they emphasize her contribution to the prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Navi Pillay grew up in frugal conditions in Durban, South Africa, but excelled early in school and eventually trained as a lawyer at, among others, the prestigious American university Harvard. She was a prominent opponent of apartheid, but the systematic racial segregation made some of her work impossible.

After nearly 30 years of practice in South Africa, including as a representative of Nelson Mandela, she had made a name for herself internationally and from now on it would be in the global arena that she primarily acted. A year after the fall of apartheid in 1994, she was appointed to a judgeship in the Supreme Court and at the same time was appointed president of the ICTR tribunal, which investigated the genocide in Rwanda in 1994.

She has since been the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and until 2025 chaired the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry into the Occupied Palestinian Territory. She is currently a judge at the International Court of Justice, ICJ, in the case in which Myanmar stands accused of genocide against the Rohingya minority group - a case that former peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi has described as based on "baseless statements".

The Nobel committee's choice is sure to stir up bad blood among those involved in perhaps the world's most polarized conflict, the one between Israel and Palestine. Last fall, the Pillay Commission of Inquiry had concluded that Israel has been committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

Israeli authorities and security forces have acted in a manner that meets the requirements for four of the five crimes listed in the 1948 Genocide Convention, the report said: murder; causing serious physical or mental harm; that Israel deliberately subjected people to living conditions aimed at the complete or partial extermination of the Palestinians; to introduce measures aimed at preventing Palestinian births.

- The responsibility for these cruel crimes lies with the highest Israeli authorities, who for almost two years have staged a genocidal campaign with the specific aim of exterminating the Palestinian population in Gaza, Pillay said in a statement at the time.

- The commission also notes that Israel has failed to prevent and punish the genocide by not investigating crimes of genocide and prosecuting the suspected perpetrators.

Navi Pillay was awarded the Olof Palme prize earlier this year when DN interviewed her. "There are highs and lows and that's why we have to be persistent and talk about the principles and demand responsibility and justice - wherever in the world it is required," she said at the time.