Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, born in Durban in 1941 to a family of Indian origin, grew up in poverty under apartheid. Her father drove a bus and the family struggled to survive despite the entrenched racial discrimination that defined South Africa at the time. Pillay earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1963 and a Bachelor of Laws in 1965 from the University of Natal before taking a postgraduate law degree from Harvard, where she completed a doctorate in juridical science in 1988.
In 1967 she became the first woman to open a law practice in Natal, and later the first Black woman to sit on South Africa's High Court. She joined the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in 1995, serving as a judge and later as president from 1999 to 2003. The tribunal's conviction of former Taba mayor Jean‑Paul Akayesu in 1998 marked the first time rape and sexual violence were deemed acts of genocide when committed with intent to destroy a protected group.
After the ICTR, Pillay was elected a judge of the International Criminal Court in 2003, cementing her reputation for holding powerful actors accountable. She was appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in September 2008, a role she held until 2014, when she oversaw global advocacy for human rights defenders and pushed for accountability of state violations.
The Nobel Committee praised Pillay's "commitment to justice, her unflinching pursuit of victims' rights, and her contribution to the development of international jurisprudence on genocide and sexual violence." Chair Jorgen Watne Frydnes said the award recognized her "lasting legacy of building the rules that bind states and individuals alike."
She will deliver a keynote speech at the Nobel Committee's dinner in October 2026, where she is expected to call for renewed international cooperation on human rights. In a statement, she thanked her colleagues and urged the global community to uphold the principles she has championed for decades.