Navanethem “Navi” Pillay is awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote peace and international law... "Her independence, expertise and steadfastness have made her one of the most respected international jurists of our time."

 

Announcement, Nobel Peace Prize 2026

9 October 2026

The Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 goes to a person who with exceptional courage and integrity has led the way towards a more comprehensive global legal order. This year’s laureate has been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay for her efforts to promote peace and international law.

Navi Pillay’s commitment to universal legal principles and her firm moral compass are constants in a long career. Born into a family of Indian Tamil origin under apartheid in Durban, South Africa, Pillay became a lawyer and legal pioneer, confronting deep structural discrimination, segregation and exclusion. A common thread runs from her early work defending Nelson Mandela and others who stood up against apartheid to her service as a judge in some of the key international court cases of our time.

This year’s laureate has significantly enlarged the scope and impact of international law. She has served as a judge on the High Court in South Africa, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court. She was the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and, until recently, she chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Today Navi Pillay is a judge on the International Court of Justice in the case where Myanmar stands accused of genocide.

In historic international court cases, she has shown that legal measures can help prevent acts of war and violence. Navi Pillay has also contributed to strengthen the institutions of international law. Her independence, expertise and steadfastness have made her one of the most respected international jurists of our time.

The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded 125 years ago. Already then, the Norwegian Nobel Committee underscored the importance of resolving conflicts through international law – a theme that has remained prominent throughout the history of the peace prize. The reach of international law expanded after the Second World War, in particular with the creation of the UN institutions. The key insight was that lasting peace must be built on legal principles, not on the will of the strong or a fragile balance of power. Additional legal mechanisms were introduced in the post-war decades, and momentum picked up further after the end of the Cold War.

However, the rules-based international order has never been perfect. The greatest powers have often evaded responsibility... READ MORE  https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2026/press-release/

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The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to South Africa's Navi Pillay for her work on international law and human rights. | Photo Credit: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP

The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay for her efforts to promote peace and international law. The Prize’s press statement described Pillay as a person with exceptional courage and integrity, who has led the way towards a more comprehensive global legal order.

“The system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack,” Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said. “We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice.”

“Navi Pillay is one of the great defenders of international legal principles in our time. Her distinguished career reminds us of the need to support, fortify and expand the global rule of law,” he added.

Pillay became South Africa’s first non-white woman high court judge in 1995, following the end of apartheid. She also served as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court. She was UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014 and later chaired the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory... READ MORE https://frontline.thehindu.com/news/navi-pillay-nobel-peace-prize-2026-human-rights/article71563867.ece

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"Peace and security. Inequality. Climate. Artificial intelligence. These are the four great power tests of the future. And they are interlinked." - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres

"Peace and security. Inequality. Climate. Artificial intelligence. These are the four great power tests of the future. And they are interlinked." - UN Secretary-General @antonioguterres 

https://x.com/UN_News_Centre/status/2102392247404642607 

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@UN_News_Centre

"Across all four tests, the decisive issue is power. Power over force, money, energy, technology, rules and the future. That is why the UN Charter – and the work of the United Nations – matter more than ever." - @antonioguterres

UN News

@UN_News_Centre

Humanity faces four defining “tests of power” – peace and security, inequality, climate change and artificial intelligence (AI) – that will determine whether the world moves towards cooperation or deeper division, UN chief  @antonioguterres warned #UNGA.

 https://x.com/UN_News_Centre/status/2102403268358053922

‘Equality is not a dream; it is a decision’

https://news.un.org/en/story/2026/09/1168392 

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"We have an opportunity in this session to show that we have learned from what works, that we are prepared to confront what does not, and that we can build a United Nations capable not simply of surviving change, but of shaping change." - @UN_PGA #UNGA

https://x.com/UN_News_Centre/status/2102398722038755835

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POWER ... a 2026 Poem by Anne Selden Annab

                  POWER

Billionaires hoard wealth in part, 

by deploying a small fraction 

of their ginormous wealth to persuade-

persuading leaders to vote for data centers 

and shape public policies 

that build Billionaire wealth 

and increasing political influence:

The VORTEX spins...

Erasing democracy.

Erasing equality.

Erasing justice.

Erasing security for most people, 

excluding, of course, the Billionaires' own personal empires-

the influencers they train, the puppets they prop up, 

the politicians they own,

the armies they build to bully US.

Massive Data Centers

hide Billionaire corruption 

and cover up Billionaire greed

in a trillion different ways...

Human history online is rewritten

bit by bit, to empower

and reward Billionaires even further.

A bloodless coup d'état

to impoverish We The People 

individually and collectively.

A global game of get get get

more wage slaves

to cook the food and clean the toilets

on the mega-yachts and in the McMansions

More wage slaves

for whatever whims and itches

the Billionaires and their

calculating Data Centers might feel.

 

 poem copyright ©2026 Anne Selden Annab

The Guardian cartoonist Ella Baron on AI (artificial intelligence) and the drought

Guardian Opinion 

cartoon 

AI (artificial intelligence)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2026/aug/23/ella-baron-on-ai-and-the-drought-cartoon 

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Slavery was Legal. Colonialism was Legal. Jim Crow was Legal. Apartheid was Legal. Legality is a matter of Power, NOT Justice

"Attacks on critical infrastructure are not only about what is destroyed, but also about the people left without what they need to live. Even wars have limits and they must be respected." ICRC Red Cross

100 countries, 1 humanitarian mission: to promote respect for the laws of war #IHL and help people caught up in armed conflicts and violence.

ICRC

@ICRC

 

Attacks on critical infrastructure are not only about what is destroyed, but also about the people left without what they need to live. Even wars have limits and they must be respected.

 https://x.com/ICRC/status/2069356238148620376

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 https://www.icrc.org/en

On the
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 Since 1863, we have worked to relieve suffering and preserve human dignity during war and armed violence. We deliver life‑saving aid across front lines, strive to reconnect families, advocate for humane treatment of detainees and urge compliance with international humanitarian law to keep civilians safe, including online.

120+ Conflicts. One mission: Preserve and prioritize humanity during war 

“From tourism to education to business, Americans have profited enormously from the open global order that international law has enabled. Trump’s return to a world of power politics would mean a more circumscribed and impoverished America.” What would happen if every state acted like Donald Trump’s America? by Kenneth Roth

"As Washington tramples norms, alliances might give way to grudging partnerships, with allies slow-walking their commitments" 

In a might-makes-right world, US allies, not to mention the emerging powers of the global south, would begin to hedge their bets in dangerous ways 

 

Kenneth Roth  in The Guardian 

 

14 Jan 2026   

What is wrong with resurrecting the prerogative of major powers to claim a sphere of influence in which they dictate and others must follow? That idea informs the “Donroe Doctrine” behind the US invasion of Venezuela to seize Nicolás Maduro. Donald Trump seems to believe that, as the world’s strongest military power, the United States should be allowed to invade other countries at will. Trump’s homeland security adviser, Stephen Miller, says “the real world” is “governed by strength”, by “power”, so we should get used to it.

There is a beguiling simplicity to this abandonment of the norms long designed to govern the behavior of states big and small. China has touted it as the reality that its Asian neighbors must live with. Russia, a third-tier power by comparison but still a nuclear-armed regional heavyweight, has periodically treated the boundaries of post-Soviet states as mere suggestions. But do we really want to return to the law of the jungle in which the guy with the biggest stick calls the shots?

Trump’s distaste for any constraints on US power did not emerge in a vacuum. The US government has long considered international law to be what Lilliputians use to restrain Gulliver. That wariness lies behind, for example, Washington’s reluctance to accept international standards that most others view as benign, such as the First Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions (articulating modern standards for warfare and ratified by 175 states), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (the US is the only nation in the world not to have ratified it) or the Law of the Sea Treaty (171 state parties). Joining the international criminal court (ICC) is deemed beyond the pale.

To some extent, spheres of influence have long existed. The United States has dominated the western hemisphere, while China held significant sway in parts of Asia and Russia in the countries of the former Soviet Union. On occasion those big powers flexed their military muscles without regard to international law – the United States to invade Iraq, for example, Russia to seize chunks of Ukraine and Georgia, China to fence off much of the South China Sea. But these forays have been exceptions, justified with allusions to Saddam’s supposed weapons of mass destruction, Putin’s stated fear of Nato expansion or China’s historical territorial claims. Trump is proposing a more unabashed return to great-power spheres of influence enforced largely by coercion.

In the past, the US government at least nominally portrayed its dominance as aimed at upholding democracy and the rule of law. Despite the many exceptions, Washington spent enough time promoting a rights-based world order that its hegemonic role seemed more palatable. Under Trump, that is all history... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/14/trump-might-makes-right-world

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Faith endures: A scene from church today in Gaza - 2025

Faith endures: a scene from church today in Gaza

Mark Twain "Sometimes I wonder whether the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it."

 

A tenth child in a Gaza hospital has been registered as dying from starvation and warns 'real figure is likely to be higher'

© UNICEF/Abed Zagout

An 8-year-old child waits her turn to receive food in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip. (file)

 

Gaza: Worst famine fears realised as 10th child reportedly ‘starves to death’

1 March 2024 Peace and Security

Repeated warnings from humanitarians over desperate food insecurity and imminent famine in Gaza came into focus on Friday amid reports from the enclave’s authorities that a tenth child had died from malnutrition and dehydration.

“The official records yesterday or this morning said there was a tenth child officially registered in a hospital as having starved to death,” said UN health agency spokesperson Christian Lindmeier. “A very sad threshold…(but) the unofficial numbers can unfortunately be expected to be higher.”

The development followed media reports overnight that four children had died in northern Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital, in addition to six other youngsters who died on Wednesday at the same facility and at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Hunger ‘catastrophe’

© UNICEF/Eyad El Baba

A two-year-old girl in Gaza is screened, indicating severe acute malnutrition and drastic weight loss and muscle atrophy.

The deepening food insecurity crisis in the enclave – which UN aid coordination office OCHA said had left one in four facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity – prompted renewed international alarm on Thursday, when more than 100 Palestinians were apparently killed and hundreds were injured trying to get aid from a relief convoy stopped at a roundabout southwest of Gaza City.

Swift condemnation of the incident by UN Secretary-General António Guterres – who also called for an independent investigation – was echoed by other top UN officials, including UN relief chief Martin Griffiths, amid reports of continuing intense Israeli bombardment from air, land and sea across much of the Gaza Strip. 

“We saw pictures from Al-Shifa (hospital) where victims of the killings were lying next to each other waiting for any treatment,” the UN World Health Organization (WHO)’s Mr. Lindmeier told journalists in Geneva.

Water and power cut

“The system in Gaza – we’ve said it many times that it’s on its knees – it’s more than on its knees,” the WHO official continued, explaining that all of Gaza’s “lifelines have more or less been cut”, notably water and electricity, since immediately after Hamas-led terror attacks on Israeli communities on 7 October. 

OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke meanwhile insisted that before the conflict “people had food; people were able to produce their own food.”

Today, finding food within Gaza itself, whether from farming or fishing, “is almost impossible”, Mr. Laerke continued. “Putting food on the table…has completely stopped. The very foundation for people's daily sustenance is being ripped away.”

Latest humanitarian food insecurity assessments – the IPC classification index which is used as a reference by aid agencies – indicate that the entire population of Gaza – 2.2 million people – face "crisis" levels of food insecurity, the OCHA spokesperson said. Of that number, around 1.17 million face "emergency" levels of food insecurity, and the plight for another 500,000 is "catastrophic".

'Dire situation'

"We have a dire situation coming towards us at very high speed," Mr. Laerke said, his comments echoing a recent UN humanitarians' warning to the Security Council that famine in the enclave is "almost inevitable" unless aid is massively scaled up.  

According to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, the quantity of aid supplies reaching Gaza in February was just half of January’s total, “and we know that January was not enough at all”, the WHO spokesperson said.

Just last week, the Council heard briefings from top humanitarian organisations, including medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières, which reported that a pattern of attacks by Israeli forces against hospitals and other civilian buildings, together with humanitarian personnel and convoys, was “either intentional or indicative of reckless incompetence”.

Thursday evening, the Security Council held closed consultations, but were deadlocked over a presidential statement related to the aid emergency, according to media reports.

Vital signs

Reiterating repeated UN calls for a ceasefire, Mr. Lindmeier maintained that Thursday’s tragic aid convoy deaths had highlighted how desperate Gazans were for food, fresh water and other essentials after nearly five months of war. 

“This is the real drama; this is the real catastrophe here, that food and supplies are so scarce that we see these situations coming up, and the food supplies have been cut off deliberately,” he maintained, noting that Gazans were no longer able to provide for themselves.

“The fields which were existing – the greenhouses, the little bit of agriculture – all that needs water supply, or water supply depending on electricity and pumping stations,” he explained. “This is the real drama; this just underlines more and more that we need an urgent ceasefire now. If not now, then when?”

Donate to the humanitarian response in Gaza.

 

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/03/1147112

 

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Global perspective Human stories

 

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