Former ICC judge Navi Pillay awarded Nobel Peace Prize

South African jurist Navi Pillay, who has served as a judge at both the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice in The Hague, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her efforts to promote peace and international law.

Most recently, the 85-year-old chaired the UN commission that concluded Israel had committed genocide.

Announcing the prize in Oslo, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said it was going to someone who “held states and national leaders accountable and brought hope to victims of violence and conflict”.

Reacting to the news in Nuremberg, Pillay said “if you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump.”

The award comes as the system of international justice is under attack. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has threatened to dismantle the International Criminal Court “brick by brick, if necessary”, and the US has sanctioned several of its staff.

Pillay played a significant role in the anti-apartheid movement in her homeland as a defence lawyer for Nelson Mandela and other activists. She went on to serve as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, spending the last four of her eight years there as its president.

She was one of the ICC’s first judges, sitting in the appeals chamber from 2003 until 2008, when she stepped down to become UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In 2019, she was appointed as an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice by the Gambia, which had filed genocide proceedings against Myanmar over its treatment of the Rohingya minority.

Last year, as chair of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, she said Israel had committed genocide in Gaza.

In a post on social media, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen congratulated Pillay. “Few have devoted their lives to justice, peace and human dignity like she did,” she said.

The prize is administered by the Nobel Foundation and comes with 12 million Swedish kronor (around €1.07 million).