The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the award on Friday at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo.
“The system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack,” the Committee said in its citation. “We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks. Whenever might overtakes right, it undermines stability, trust and peaceful co-existence.”
Born in 1941 in Durban to a family of Indian Tamil origin during apartheid, Pillay made history in 1967 as the first woman to start a law practice in Natal Province and later as the first non-white woman to serve as a judge on South Africa’s High Court.
Her early legal work included defending Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists.
Internationally, she served as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she played a landmark role in establishing rape and sexual violence as acts of genocide, and as a judge of the International Criminal Court. She also served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014.
Most recently, she chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which last year concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel dismissed the report as “scandalous.”
The Committee praised Pillay for holding states accountable and bringing hope to victims, noting a “common thread” from her anti-apartheid work to major international tribunals.
The Prize is worth 12 million Swedish crowns, about USD 1.2 million, and will be presented in Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death.
Pillay succeeds Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, who won in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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