South Africa's Navi Pillay wins 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, another disappointment for Trump

The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize, regarded as the year's most prestigious honour, has been awarded to Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, a senior South African judge and human rights expert. The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the award and said it recognised her efforts to advance peace and international law.

According to the committee, Pillay made a significant contribution to strengthening international law, protecting human rights and establishing peace by curbing violence around the world. With the announcement, US President Donald Trump has once again been disappointed.

Pillay is 85. She was born on September 23, 1941, in Durban, South Africa. Her family had moved from India to South Africa about 136 years ago, in the nineteenth century. She grew up under the apartheid regime, in an extremely difficult period, and studied law in South Africa.

In 1967, she became the first woman lawyer to begin practising in her hometown, Natal. She provided legal defence to a number of political and human rights activists, such as Nelson Mandela, who spoke out against the apartheid system.

After apartheid ended in South Africa, she was appointed an acting judge of the High Court in 1995. In the same year, the UN General Assembly elected her a judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), which heard cases linked to the Rwandan genocide.

From September 1, 2008, to 2014, she then held the key post of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. She waged a strong fight for human rights, holding national leaders accountable for atrocities and violence in many countries.

For some time, Trump had been claiming that he had stopped several wars and that the Nobel Peace Prize should therefore go to him. He kept raising the demand. The Nobel Committee, however, set these claims aside and recognised Pillay's work in human rights and international justice.

In its announcement, the committee said: "In today's world, when institutions of law are under attack, the contribution of courageous, farsighted and fair-minded people like Navi Pillay is a ray of hope for all humanity."

A message issued on behalf of the Nobel Prize also said Pillay had held governments and national leaders accountable and had raised hope for the victims of violence and conflict. According to the message, she is one of the greatest defenders of international legal principles of our times.