Navi Pillay

Judge, 2026 Nobel Peace Prize laureate

Navanethem "Navi" Pillay is a South African judge and jurist, born in Durban in 1941, who won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. She defended anti-apartheid activists including Nelson Mandela, became the first black woman on South Africa's High Court, served eight years on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (four as its president) and as a judge at the International Criminal Court, was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, and has sat as an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice since 2019.