South African-born jurist Navi Pillay wins Nobel Peace Prize for her work in international justice

South African-born jurist Navi Pillay was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for her decades-long efforts to promote international law and human rights. The 85-year-old former U.N. human rights chief received the news while attending a forum in Nuremberg, Germany, sitting in Courtroom 600 of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice where Nazi war criminals were tried.

Norwegian Nobel Committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said Pillay's work "is a source of hope and inspiration to all those who seek to bring about a more peaceful world." The committee said it sought to strengthen international law at a time of conflict and called the award a message to those seeking to undermine "the international rules-based system and the institutions."

Pillay's career has spanned from defending the rights of an imprisoned Nelson Mandela during apartheid-era South Africa to serving at both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. She recently chaired a U.N. Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel that concluded Israel was responsible for genocide in Gaza with specific intent to destroy Palestinians there.

The commission also found that Israeli leaders had incited the commission of genocide, while also accusing Hamas of war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack. Israel has refused to cooperate with the commission and strenuously denied the accusations. Pillay has rejected criticism accusing her of antisemitism or ignoring the Hamas attacks.

Upon learning of the prize, Pillay said, "What's happening there is genocide," referring to Gaza. She warned that efforts to weaken international criminal justice "endanger the progress painstakingly made since Nuremberg, and they risk returning us to a world in which power, rather than law, determines whose suffering matters." World leaders, she added, have a "legal obligation to protect human rights and refrain from war."

Sources: Las Vegas Review-Journal