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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Israel has kidnapped Mandla Mandela grandson of Nelson Mendala for standing against apartheid in Palestine

Global Sumud Flotilla Commentary

@Globalsumudf 

  Israel has kidnapped Mandla Mandela grandson of Nelson Mendala for standing against apartheid in Palestine

SOUTH AFRICA demands the RELEASE of Nelson Mandela's Grandson Mandla, who was ABDUCTED on the Global Sumud Flotilla

World must deny Israel ‘tools of genocide’, says growing alliance of activist states: New York meeting of Hague Group warns of shared responsibility to prevent genocide and proposes steps to isolate Israel

Protesters outside the US embassy in Kuala Lumpur, as Malaysia’s foreign minister told the Hague Group that states should identity companies enabling Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land. Photograph: Fazry Ismail/EPA

Patrick Wintour in New York

Fri 26 Sep 2025

The international community has a legal and moral duty to deny Israel “the tools of genocide”, the Malaysian foreign minister, Mohamad Hasan, said at a meeting in New York of the Hague Group, the growing alliance of countries dedicated to coordinating practical economic and legal steps to isolate Israel over the war in Gaza.

The group, co-chaired by South Africa and Colombia, has become a central exchange for practical steps to try to pressure Israel, including stepping up collective action at ports and airports to prevent the transfer of weapons and goods to Israel, including dual-use heavy machinery.

Hasan said states also needed to identify the multinational companies found to be enabling Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

The group, meeting as world leaders were in New York for the UN general assembly, heard calls to support the aid flotilla trying to break the Israeli siege of Palestine and for Israel to be blocked from international cultural events.

The Brazilian foreign minister, Mauro Vieira, said: “We must turn indignation into action, law into justice and justice into peace.”

Brazil last week joined the South African action in the international court of justice accusing Israel of a genocide and said Israel’s claim of self-defence had no application in the context of an occupation. Chile, another group member, has withdrawn its ambassador to Israel.

Vieira said: “International law requires a state not only to refrain from genocide but also to prevent it. Failure to do so may give rise to state responsibility including complicity with genocide. The time has come for states to fulfil their obligations under the genocide convention, by adopting effective measures to ensure that they do not, directly or indirectly, collaborate with its perpetrators.”

Brazil has called for an international mission on the model of the UN special committee against apartheid, a body established in 1962 to coordinate action to end South Africa’s apartheid government... READ MORE   https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/26/world-must-deny-israel-tools-of-genocide-says-growing-alliance-of-activist-states 

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“Diversity can be a source of common strength, a wellspring from which we deepen our awareness of humanity.” Nelson Mandela's words resonate as strongly today as ever.

United Nations Geneva  @UNGeneva 

On this day in 1994,  @NelsonMandela delivered a lecture at the World Conference on Religion and Peace. His words resonate as strongly today as ever.

“The Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal...” GLOBAL ACTION is needed to stop Israel !

Francesca Albanese speaks at an Emergency Conference of States, hosted by Colombia and South Africa, to discuss measures against Israel, in Bogota, Colombia [Luisa Gonzalez/Reuters]

UN rapporteur demands global action to stop Israel’s ‘genocide’ in Gaza

Francesca Albanese addresses delegates from 30 countries to discuss ways nations can try to stop Israel’s offensive.

The United Nations’s special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory has said that it is time for nations around the world to take concrete actions to stop Israel’s “genocide” in Gaza.

Francesca Albanese spoke to delegates from 30 countries meeting in Colombia’s capital, Bogota, on Tuesday to discuss Israel’s brutal assault and ways nations can try to stop the offensive in the besieged enclave.

Many of the participating nations have described Israel’s war on Gaza as a genocide against the Palestinians.

More than 58,000 people have been killed since Israel launched the assault in October 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities. Israeli forces have also imposed several total blockades on the territory throughout the war, pushing Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to the brink of starvation.

“Each state must immediately review and suspend all ties with the State of Israel … and ensure its private sector does the same,” Albanese said. “The Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal.”

The two-day conference organised by Colombia and South Africa is being attended mostly by developing nations, although Spain, Ireland and China have also sent delegates.

The conference is co-chaired by South Africa and Colombia, which last year suspended coal exports to Israeli power plants. It includes the participation of members of The Hague Group, a coalition of eight countries that earlier this year pledged to cut military ties with Israel and comply with an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

For decades, South Africa’s governing African National Congress party has compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank with its own history of oppression under the harsh apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Black people to areas called “homelands”, before ending in 1994... READ MORE  https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/7/15/un-rapporteur-demands-global-action-to-stop-israels-genocide-in-gaza?traffic_source=rss

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Francesca Albanese: Imagine if people stopped telling the Palestinians what to do and instead focused on Israel's LEGAL OBLIGATIONS

 Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt

@FranceskAlbs

Imagine if people stopped telling the Palestinians what to do and instead focused on Israel's LEGAL OBLIGATIONS to: 

1. Withdraw its unlawful presence (cum Apartheid) from the 22% that remains of historical Palestine; 

2. Stop committing acts that may result in genocide, as per the ICJ South Africa v Israel.; 

3. Start devising a Reparation Plan for the apocaliptic destruction caused in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Sue Williamson, an anti-apartheid artist: “They’re trying to set it up that South Africa is not a credible country to bring such a case [the International Court of Justice (ICJ) case against Israel]... You’ll see South Africa dragged through the mud a lot more by Netanyahu [Benjamin, prime minister of Israel] and Trump and Musk.”

Chair for Ray Alexander, created from 1990 to 1992. Photograph: Sue Williamson

‘Trump and Musk are gaslighting’: anti-apartheid artist on how US president and his billionaire ally are attacking South Africa

Ahead of a career retrospective, Sue Williamson tells how the US pair are dragging her country ‘through the mud’

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 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/23/trump-and-musk-are-gaslighting-anti-apartheid-artist-on-how-us-president-and-his-billionaire-ally-are-attacking-south-africa

Speaking from her studio in Cape Town, Williamson said: “Trump and Musk are just gaslighting, because of the judgment of the international court of justice (ICJ) against Israel.”

South Africa brought a case against Israel at the ICJ in December 2023, accusing it of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. In January 2024, the UN court ordered Israel to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide, although it has not yet ruled on its previous acts. Israel has fiercely rejected the case.

“They’re trying to set it up that South Africa is not a credible country to bring such a case,” Williamson said. “You’ll see South Africa dragged through the mud a lot more by Netanyahu [Benjamin, prime minister of Israel] and Trump and Musk.”

Ahead of the opening of her retrospective at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town on 22 February, Williamson dismissed the US claims that South Africa was expropriating land from white Afrikaner farmers.

“It’s a much more considered process. If you look back to the Land Act of 1913, when black farmers lost their land to whites, it’s about time that something was done to reverse that.” .... READ MORE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Williamson has produced many forms of resistance art that examines the history of South Africa.  For instance with 'One Hundred and Nineteen Deeds of Sale' Williamson incorporates the history and memory of the slave trade in order to transform the stigmatizing history into a history that can address and combat global inequalities.

'One Hundred and Nineteen Deeds of Sale' by Sue Williamson              https://www.sue-williamson.com/one-hundred-and-nineteen-deeds-of-s

 

The Inaugural Joint Statement of The Hague Group, January 31, 2025

 

INAUGURAL JOINT STATEMENT

The Hague Group, January 31, 2025

We, the Representatives from the Governments of Belize, Plurinational State of Bolivia, Republic of Colombia, Republic of Cuba, Republic of Honduras, Malaysia, Republic of Namibia, Republic of Senegal and Republic of South Africa in The Hague, Netherlands, on this 31st day of January 2025, inaugurate The Hague Group,

Guided by the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, and the responsibility of all nations to uphold the inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination, that it enshrines for all peoples,

Grieving the lives, livelihoods, communities, and cultural heritage lost due to Israel, the occupying power’s genocidal actions in Gaza and the remainder of the Occupied Palestinian Territory against the Palestinian people,

Refusing to remain passive in the face of such international crimes,

Determined to uphold our obligations to end the Israeli occupation of the State of Palestine and support the realisation of the inalienable right of the Palestinian People to self-determination, including the right to their independent State of Palestine,

Recalling

the orders of the International Court of Justice in the case of South Africa v. Israel of 29 December 2023, which reflect a serious concern about the perpetration of crimes of genocide in Palestine, and noting the significant and diverse number of States that have joined as third States in the case, to demand the condemnation and immediate cessation of the ongoing genocide,.

the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice of 19 July 2024 on the ‘Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem’,

and the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice of 9 July 2004 ‘’Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory’’

the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A/RES/Es-10/24, adopted on 18 September 2024 at the Tenth Emergency Special Session, which endorsed the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion of July 2024, and the commitments of member states to comply with the obligations under international law as reflected in the advisory opinion,

the International Criminal Court’s issuance on 21 November 2024 of warrants of arrest for indicating “reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Netanyahu and Mr Gallant each bear criminal responsibility as civilian superiors for the war crime of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population...the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare...and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution, and other inhumane acts”.

the order of the International Court of Justice in Nicaragua v. Germany of 30 April 2024 “remind[ing] all States of their international obligations relating to the transfer of arms to parties to an armed conflict, in order to avoid the risk that such arms might be used to violate” the Genocide Convention and the Geneva Conventions in relation to Israel’s conduct in Gaza and the remainder of the Occupied Palestinian Territory,

the United Nations Security Council Resolution 418 of 4 November 1977, and United Nations Security Council Resolution 591 of 28 November 1986, that “imposed a mandatory arms embargo” against Apartheid South Africa.

all the relevant resolutions of the Security Council, including resolution 2334 (2016) of 23 December 2016, which reaffirmed that “the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law”;

Stressing that the legal norms violated by Israel include certain obligations of an erga omnes character that are, by their very nature, the concern of all States and, in view of the importance of the rights involved, all States can be held to have a legal interest in their protection,

Emphasizing the need to ensure accountability for the most serious crimes under international law through appropriate, fair and independent investigations and prosecutions at the national or international level, and to ensure justice for all victims and the prevention of future crimes;

Convinced that collective action through coordinated legal and diplomatic measures at both national and international levels is an urgent imperative to uphold the principles of justice and accountability that form the foundation of the UN Charter,

Declare our intention to:

1. Uphold the UN Resolution A/RES/Es-10/24 and, in the case of States Parties, support the requests of the International Criminal Court comply with our obligations under the Rome Statute, with regards to the warrants issued on 21 November 2024; and implement the provisional measures of the International Court of Justice, issued on 26 January, 28 March, and 24 May 2024.

2. Prevent provision or transfer of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel, in all cases where there is a clear risk that such arms and related items might be used to commit or facilitate violations of humanitarian law, international human rights law, or the prohibition on genocide, in compliance with our international obligations and consistent with the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion of 19 July 2024 and the UN General Assembly Resolution A/RES/Es-10/24.

3. Prevent the docking of vessels at any port, if applicable, within our territorial jurisdiction, in all cases where there is a clear risk of the vessel being used to carry military fuel and weaponry to Israel, which might be used to commit or facilitate violations of humanitarian law, of international human rights law, and of the prohibition on genocide in Palestine, in keeping with states’ peremptory legal obligation to cooperate towards preventing genocide and other violations of peremptory norms by all legal measures at their disposal.

We will take further effective measures to end Israeli occupation of the State of Palestine and remove obstacles to the realisation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including the right to their independent State of Palestine.

We invite all states to take all possible actions and policies to end Israel’s occupation of the State of Palestine.

We call on all nations to join us in The Hague Group in the solemn commitment to an international order based on the rule of law and international law, which, together with the principles of justice, is essential for peaceful coexistence and cooperation among States.

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt

@FranceskAlbs

This is absolutely the best news that has come from a coalition of policy-makers in a long time. Let it be justice. Let's make it real. And let's keep growing.

 

South African lawyers gearing up to file war-crime complicity case against UK, US ... #Israel #WarCrimes

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https://skwawkbox.org/2024/09/17/south-african-lawyers-gearing-up-to-file-war-crime-complicity-case-against-uk-us/ 

South African lawyers gearing up to file war-crime complicity case against UK, US

By SKWAWKBOX (SW)17/09/2024

Far from bowing to US/Israel pressure, Van Rensburg team finalises complicity case

A team of forty-seven South African lawyers is finalising its lawsuit against the UK and US for their complicity in Israel’s genocide and other war crimes against Palestinians. The group, which is led by Wikus van Rensburg, is the same team that filed South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), successfully obtaining the finding of ‘plausible genocide’ that effectively put Israel on trial before the court for the crime.

The lawyers plan to use civilian courts to prosecute those who aid and abet Israel in its crimes through civilian courts, in cooperation with UK and US lawyers.

Rensburg told Turkish media outlet Anadolu Ajansi that it was time for the UK and US to be held to account for their complicity:

The United States must now be held accountable for the crimes it committed. No one says stop, enough is enough.

What happened in Iraq is an example of this; no one held the US accountable for the crimes it committed in the Middle Eastern country as the issue was not given the necessary importance.

The US is busy spending more money and more resources to (allow Israel) commit the crime. If the ICJ trial against Israel is concluded in favour of South Africa, the US may face sanctions even if it does not accept the verdict. The ICJ ruling will also strengthen a case against the Joe Biden administration.

The US must now be held responsible for the crimes it has committed. It must accept its responsibilities. You could not avoid responsibility. The US must now be held accountable for the crimes it committed.

Israel has been lobbying its US allies to use sanctions and diplomatic pressure try to pressure South Africa and the UN’s courts to drop the case, as well as to coerce the International Criminal Court (ICC) not to issue arrest warrants for Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister Yoav Gallant. Far from bowing to the pressure, South Africa has responded by taking its legal preparations for the complicity cases forward.

The US and UK have provided direct military assistance to and political cover for Israel during its genocide, in which it has already killed as many as 200,000 Palestinians, while the Starmer regime in the UK is targeting journalists and activists who draw attention to and oppose Israel’s war crimes.

Revealed: Israeli spy chief ‘threatened’ ICC prosecutor over war crimes inquiry

Mossad director Yossi Cohen personally involved in secret plot to pressure Fatou Bensouda to drop Palestine investigation, sources say

• Spying, hacking and intimidation: Israel’s nine-year ‘war’ on the ICC exposed

Harry Davies in Jerusalem

Tue 28 May 2024 02.30 EDT

Last modified on Tue 28 May 2024 21.31 EDT

The former head of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, allegedly threatened a chief prosecutor of the international criminal court in a series of secret meetings in which he tried to pressure her into abandoning a war crimes investigation, the Guardian can reveal.

Yossi Cohen’s covert contacts with the ICC’s then prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, took place in the years leading up to her decision to open a formal investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestinian territories.

That investigation, launched in 2021, culminated last week when Bensouda’s successor, Karim Khan, announced that he was seeking an arrest warrant for the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over the country’s conduct in its war in Gaza.

The prosecutor’s decision to apply to the ICC’s pre-trial chamber for arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, alongside three Hamas leaders, is an outcome Israel’s military and political establishment has long feared... READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/28/israeli-spy-chief-icc-prosecutor-war-crimes-inquiry

~~~ 

The ICC case dates back to 2015, when Fatou Bensouda decided to open a preliminary examination into the situation in Palestine

ICC Prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda