Navi Pillay from South Africa Wins the Nobel Peace Prize

Navi Pillay is a judge from South Africa. She is 85 years old. When she heard that she had won the Nobel Peace Prize, she thought it was a joke. She said she was a lawyer and a judge, so she still wanted to check it.

But it was true. On Friday, 9 October 2026, the Nobel Committee told the world the news in Oslo. More than 280 people and groups were on the list for the prize.

Pillay was born in Durban on 23 September 1941. Her family came from India long ago. At the age of ten, she wrote a school essay. It said that South African courts punished Black people more than white people. Later, people from her community gave money, and she studied law at university.

At that time, South Africa had apartheid. Under this system, white people had more rights than other people. No law firm wanted to give Pillay a job. So in 1967 she opened her own law office. She was the first non-white woman in her area to do this. For 28 years, she helped people in court when they fought against apartheid. In 1995 she became the first non-white woman judge at the High Court of South Africa.

In the same year, President Nelson Mandela sent her to a new international court for Rwanda. In 1994, many people in Rwanda were killed in a genocide. A genocide is when people try to kill a whole group. In 1998 the court said that Jean-Paul Akayesu was guilty. He was a mayor in Rwanda. No international court ever decided a genocide case before this one. Pillay was one of the judges. The court said that rape can also be part of a genocide.

Later, Pillay worked at the United Nations and helped people’s rights all over the world.

In South Africa, many people were very proud. Pillay is the fifth South African to win the prize. She is the first South African woman.

On the same day, the United States punished the International Criminal Court. Pillay was once a judge there. Marco Rubio works for President Donald Trump. He said Trump will never let the court take Americans to court. A leader at the court said this will not stop their work.