What we're covering
• The Nobel Peace Prize has gone to human rights pioneer Navi Pillay. The South African was integral to the anti-apartheid movement, served as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and recently led the UN commission that concluded Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
• The Nobel committee said Pillay “held states and national leaders accountable and brought hope to the victims of violence and conflict.” Pillay was at an event at the courts that hosted the Nuremberg Trials 80 years ago when she learned of her win, and asked, “is it true?” when she heard the news.
• US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed he deserves the peace prize, saying this week that it “would be a great discredit” to the Nobel committee if it did not select him for the honor.
Updates
(26)South African President Ramaphosa praises Pillay’s Nobel win
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has congratulated Navi Pillay on winning the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her work on peace, justice and international law.
Ramaphosa said in a post on X: “Justice Pillay’s crowning as winner of the Nobel Prize 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.”
“She has served humanity with principle and the belief that the world can and should be a better place,” he added.
Pillay began her career as an anti-apartheid lawyer before becoming a judge and later president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She also served on the International Criminal Court and served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Ramaphosa said the award places Pillay alongside other South African Nobel Peace laureates, including Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu and Albert Luthuli.
“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,” he added.
Nobel Committee “daring to be brave” with Pillay peace prize, expert says
Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Navi Pillay sends a message of support for international courts and judges facing pressure from political actors, said Haakon Gjerløw, acting director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
Gjerløw described Pillay as a “very courageous” judge, pointing to her work on war crimes and genocide, and her willingness to stand up to powerful political actors.
The award comes amid increasing pressure on the international legal order, including the International Criminal Court, he said.
The Nobel Committee’s commitment to peace may sometimes put it in “conflict or at least opposition to powerful political actors,” he added. “The committee should not shy away from those topics.”
According to Gjerløw, choosing an individual rather than an institution also sends an inspirational message, showing that people can work toward peace in their own capacities.
“Giving it to these individuals is a way of inspiring all of us that we can also in our individual lives work towards peace.”
"A collective win for human rights": First reactions to peace prize pouring in
As word spreads of the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to prominent international jurist Navi Pillay, reactions are starting to come in from the United Nations and human rights organizations.
- UN human rights office: The spokesperson for the UN human rights office, Shabia Mantoo, told reporters in Geneva, Switzerland that their office was “elated to hear the news.” Mantoo said that Pillay has been “a staunch defender and advocate of human rights,” and it’s important to see the accolade being awarded to “those who are speaking out on violations.”
- UN human rights chief: Volker Türk, who is Pillay’s successor in the role of High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that her award was a “collective win for human rights, but also for seeking justice and accountability in this world.”
- International Criminal Court: The president of the ICC, Judge Tomoko Akane, said the 2026 peace prize presents an “important recognition of the vital role that international justice plays as a cornerstone of lasting peace.”
- Peace Research Institute Oslo: PRIO’s director said that Pillay’s peace prize “sends a clear message that peace depends not only on political leadership, but on strong, credible international institutions and the courageous people who dedicate their lives to defending them.”
- Amnesty International: The human rights organization described Pillay as a “great and inspired choice” for the peace award. Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard wrote that at a moment 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.”
CNN’s Duarte Mendonca, Lauren Said-Moorhouse, Issy Ronald and Kathryn Snowdon contributed to this report.
Pillay's win is likely to trigger backlash in Israel
The Nobel Committee’s decision to award its peace prize to Navi Pillay will inevitably be seen as the prestigious organization adding its weight to the idea that Israel’s actions in Gaza since October 7, 2023, constitute genocide.
Pillay chaired a UN Commission that concluded in September 2025 that statements by Israeli political and military leaders, as well as the actions of Israel’s armed forces, showed clearly “that there is an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention.”
The commission’s report also accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, among a number of senior Israeli officials, of incitement to genocide. Israel has always vehemently rejected claims its war efforts amount to genocide but is widely seen as losing the argument among much of the international community.
While Western governments, including the United Kingdom, have shied away from using the term ‘genocide,’ it was still striking that Britain’s Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband – who recently announced a package of sanctions against Israel for its treatment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank – told his party’s conference last month, “I want to say to the millions of people in this country and indeed elsewhere who have been moved and outraged by the plight of the Palestinian people: we hear you, you were right.”
Pillay, who once served on Rwandan genocide tribunal, "still haunted" victim testimonies
Navi Pillay served as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda from 1995 to 2003, of which she eventually became president.
The tribunal was created by a UN resolution in 1994 for the purpose of “prosecuting persons responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international law committed in the territory of Rwanda and Rwandese citizens responsible for genocide.”
In 1994, Hutu extremists in Rwanda targeted minority ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a three-month killing spree that left an estimated 800,000 people dead.
Some estimate the death toll of the Rwandan genocide to be even higher, with about 1 million people killed – 10% of the population of the central African nation. Millions more people were raped and disfigured, and a whole generation of children lost their parents, CNN previously reported.
“Soldiers, gendarmes, politicians, Interahamwe (Hutu paramilitary organization) and ordinary citizens were amongst the perpetrators,” according to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
In the years following, the international tribunal indicted 93 individuals whom it considered responsible for serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Rwanda. Among those, 62 were sentenced by the tribunal and 10 were referred to national jurisdictions for trial.
The UN-backed tribunal also established a unit for gender issues and assistance to victims of the genocide.
“We must reflect not only on the massive scale of the killings and other atrocities during those 100 days of genocide, but also on what led to the annihilation of social values, and law and order, which allowed genocide to occur,” Pillay said. “As well as examining why the horrific violations took place, we must continue to reflect on our collective failure to stop them.”
How Pillay reacted to her Nobel Peace Prize win: "Is it true?"
As her colleagues applauded and congratulated Navi Pillay for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, her first question was simply: “Is it true?”
“I thought it must be a joke,” she said. To which one of her colleagues replies, “No, it’s everywhere, it’s on the BBC.”
In a video posted on X by Agnes Callamard, the Secretary General of Amnesty International, Pillay eventually gave an impromptu speech acknowledging her win. She was attending an event at the courts that hosted the Nuremberg Trials 80 years ago when she learned of her win.
“If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump,” Pillay quipped.
Referencing the Nobel Committee paying tribute to her “courage,” Pillay says: “You can imagine how surprised I was.”
“Why would you need courage to speak the truth? You interpret the law, you look at all the facts. So it’s impartial decision-making,” she said.
Navi Pillay, in her own words
In a CNN op-ed five years ago, Navi Pillay reflected on her life’s work, human rights in South Africa and the state of international law 75 years after the Nuremberg Trials laid its foundations.
“As a law student in 1963, I was intrigued by the Nuremberg cases I pored over in the library; they gave me a framework for understanding apartheid-era crimes, and how the law could tackle state-sponsored violence and inequality,” she wrote.
She wrote about her time as one of the first judges elected to serve on the International Criminal Court, the body established in 2002 to prosecute individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
“While the creation of the ICC itself was a remarkable achievement, and it has accomplished some notable successes, our work is still only beginning,” she wrote. “When I look around the world, I see the gap between our aspirations and the experiences of victims worldwide.”
“The path toward implementation of the Nuremberg principles is a symbol of humanity’s aspiration and progress toward justice. We are morally obliged to continue our collective work toward a more just and peaceful future on behalf of next generations.”
Nobel Committee warns of international law "being under attack"
Every Nobel Peace Prize carries a powerful message imbued with the prestige of this award.
With this year’s award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee “wants to remind the world that the rule of law, national and international, underpins the system we have set up peace and resolve conflicts non-violently,” said its chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes today.
That system of international law is “under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack,” Frydnes added.
He continued: “History has shown that a world operating without the rule of law is unjust, unwise and inhumane. The judges – those who guard the thin red line between order and chaos – are therefore highly deserving of our praise.”
“But today, as these same judges are sanctioned, and their institutions are under attack, we need people of courage, vision and determination – qualities that Navi Pillay demonstrates in her work on the bench,” Frydnes added.
See the moment Navi Pillay is awarded this year's peace prize
A short while ago, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, announced Navi Pillay as the recipient of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. Watch the moment here:
Who is Navi Pillay, this year's peace prize winner?
Navi Pillay, 85, is a South African anti-apartheid lawyer turned international jurist who has “been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted,” the Nobel committee said.
She has served as a judge on the world’s most important courts of international law, including the International Criminal Court, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Court of Justice, as well as serving as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights between 2008-2014.
Before turning to international law, she was integral to the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa, acting as a defense attorney for anti-apartheid activists and helping to secure rights for those imprisoned on Robben Island.
She was also the first Black woman to serve on the High Court in South Africa and became the first woman to start a law practice in her home province of Natal, in South Africa.
"If you see a Norwegian number calling, please pick up," Nobel Committee tells Pillay
The chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, said in a news conference that they have not yet been able to reach winner Navi Pillay to notify her of the award.
“I would love to talk to you very soon,” he added.
Norway’s international dialing code is +47, in case any Nobel laureates are wondering.
Nobel Committee praises Pillay for "exceptional courage” in legal field
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised 2026 peace laureate Navi Pillay for her “exceptional courage and integrity” in the legal field and for her “efforts to promote peace and international law.”
In their announcement of the award today, the committee said that Pillay’s “commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass are constants in a long career.”
“Navi Pillay has held states and national leaders accountable and brought hope to the victims of violence and conflict,” he added. “In all the positions she has held, she has stressed the responsibility of individuals and states to comply with the rule of law.”
Nobel Peace Prize goes to Navi Pillay for her efforts to promote international law
The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to Navi Pillay for her efforts to promote peace and international law.
SOON: Nobel Peace Prize announcement is expected imminently
We’re about to find out the winner of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The committee have entered the room and will shortly begin their announcement.
What does the peace prize mean in a time of so many wars?
The peace prize takes on a different significance in a time when there is so much instability.
Destructive wars continued around the globe last year. Russia’s war in Ukraine shows no signs of ending soon, more than a thousand Palestinians have been killed by Israeli strikes in Gaza even after a fragile ceasefire came into effect last November, civil war in Sudan is still raging, and war in Iran has further destabilized the Middle East.
The peace prize “highlights the urgency of certain causes and certain challenges,” said Karim Haggag, the director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
As well as these wars, global military spending rose by almost 3% last year, fueled mostly by ballooning defense budgets in Europe and Asia, SIPRI found in their annual report.
The ICC and ICJ are two institutions that experts have highlighted as potential recipients of the award this year.
The Nobel committee can send different messages depending on who they choose to award. If human rights activists or journalists are recognized, the message could be one of “setting an example of moral courage in the face of very strong political or authoritarian pressure,” Haggag added.
The Nobel committee can choose to withhold the prize. Has that ever happened?
If there is no “suitable” candidate for the peace prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee can choose not to award it.
The process for selecting Nobel peace laureates closely follows the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist who gave his fortune to establish the prizes. His will says the award will be given to “the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses.”
The Nobel Foundation’s bylaws say that “if none of the works under consideration is found to be of the importance indicated in the first paragraph, the prize money shall be reserved until the following year.”
In the past, the committee has chosen to abstain 19 times – most notably during the first and second world wars – but the peace prize has been awarded every year since 1971.
Some observers have argued that withholding the prize could send a strong message that the world must step up its peacebuilding efforts. But scholars of conflict and disarmament have previously told CNN that withholding the prize could send a message of resignation and hopelessness.
Potential laureate: the Committee to Protect Journalists
Another potential laureate featured on the list released by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) is the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a US-based watchdog organization that promotes press freedom by defending the right of media workers to report safely and without fear of reprisal. It also advocates for the release of detained and imprisoned journalists.
CPJ also tracks the killing, detention and targeting of journalists worldwide. The organization said there were a record-high number of journalists killed in 2024 and 2025.
As of December 2025, CPJ researchers have documented 335 journalists worldwide who are imprisoned and 85 who are missing. The watchdog also found that 130 journalists and media workers were killed last year.
“Beyond active warzones, journalists face lethal risks from organized crime and systematic repression,” the PRIO said in a statement. “From targeted killings in armed conflicts and by criminal networks, to the relentless harassment and suppression of independent media in countries such as Russia, Mexico, Myanmar and Afghanistan, reporting truth has increasingly become a matter of life and death.”
Potential laureate: Sudan’s Emergency Response Rooms
More than three years after it broke out, Sudan’s deadly civil war is still raging, fueling one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
More than 150,000 people have been killed, 14 million more displaced and 33.7 million people – more than two-thirds of Sudan’s population – require urgent humanitarian assistance, the Red Cross reported in July.
But international aid organizations have struggled to reach those in need. In their absence, the community-led Emergency Response Rooms have stepped in, providing food, clean water, medication, community kitchens, health clinics and trauma counseling.
The network of community-led initiatives is listed as a possible laureate by the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), which publishes a list of five worthy potential winners each year.
“In light of Ukraine and Iran and all of these big geopolitical wars, the Sudan war can end up a little on the back bench, but it is a war that entangles in it a lot of the dynamics in the Middle East with the rising conflict over the Red Sea,” says Haakon Gjerløw, acting director of the PRIO.
Alsanosi Adam, a volunteer and one of the Emergency Response Rooms’ spokespeople, told the Guardian last year: “You risk anything from intimidation to death. From torture to being killed – and everything in between.”
The network emerged from the Sudanese tradition of “Nafeer,” meaning a “collective call to action,” and first developed during earlier upheaval in 2018 and the Covid-19 pandemic, according to aid group Save the Children.
Potential laureates: the ICC and ICJ
The International Criminal Court (ICC) and International Court of Justice (ICJ) are the two main courts of global law, and frequently appear on the shortlist of potential Nobel Peace Prize winners listed by the Peace Research Institute Oslo.
They have received unprecedented international attention for their efforts to prosecute alleged war crimes committed in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza.
The ICJ, which prosecutes states, has ordered Israel to “take all measures” to prevent genocide in Gaza after South Africa accused Israel of violating international laws on genocide in its war in the territory.
The ICC, which prosecutes individuals, issued an arrest warrant in March 2023 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and another Russian official for an alleged scheme to deport Ukrainian children. It issued arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, in 2024.
But picking the ICC could invoke the wrath of the Trump administration, which targeted several ICC prosecutors with sanctions after it issued the warrants for Israeli officials, as part of its campaign to “dismantle” the court — an effort condemned by Europe and Japan. Neither the US nor Israel are party to the ICC.
“We do feel pressure but as I’ve said the dedication of our staff is extraordinary and they continue to do their work.”
Potential laureate: the International Space Station
For the last 26 years, the International Space Station (ISS) has been continuously occupied by humans orbiting the Earth, becoming an increasingly rare example of international cooperation.
“Giving the prize to the ISS would be one way of celebrating what we can achieve as humanity when we are able to cooperate,” said Haakon Gjerløw, acting director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, which compiles a widely respected shortlist of potential Nobel Peace Prize nominees.
Cooperation on the ISS is enabled through the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which also prohibited countries from placing nuclear weapons or installing military bases in outer space, Gjerløw points out.
But that treaty does not prohibit the use of conventional weapons in space, and the US military recently confirmed it had deployed weapons in orbit.
So, highlighting the ISS “could also give an impetus for politicians internationally to improve on the Outer Space Treaty,” or establish a new space station that also includes China when the current one is decommissioned in 2030, Gjerløw told CNN.
Jointly run by NASA and its equivalent agencies in Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe, the ISS represents “the most politically complex space exploration program ever undertaken,” according to NASA’s website.
Research there has advanced our understanding in many areas of science, including drug development, quantum mechanics and black holes.
