How Navi Pillay’s Nobel Peace Prize win sent a message to the world – and Trump

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When South African jurist Navi Pillay won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, she happened to be at a conference at the Nuremberg Court in Germany, where the landmark trial of Nazi leaders almost 80 years ago laid the foundations for modern international law.

As her colleagues in the human rights community applauded and congratulated the former International Criminal Court (ICC) judge on her win, her first reaction was simply: “Is it true? I thought it must be a joke.”

“If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with (US President Donald) Trump,” she quipped, a reference to how last year’s winner gave her medal to the US president, before adding “it’s very appropriate that I’m with friends, colleagues, all of whom support human rights.”

The work of this community and the international legal order have increasingly come under attack in recent years – a fact the Nobel committee were eager to highlight in their decision to recognize Pillay, 85.

By spotlighting Pillay, who has served on several international courts and oversaw a 2025 UN report that concluded that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, the committee said it wanted to “remind the world that the rule of law – national and international – underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace.”

That message was not explicitly directed at any one state. But implicitly, it rebuked those countries – most notably the US – whose actions have weakened international legal institutions.

Hours after Pillay’s win, the Trump administration announced fresh sanctions on the ICC, the body established in 2002 to prosecute individuals accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The ICC condemned the move as an “assault on the rule of law and on the very foundations of the international legal order,” called on other states to help support the court but emphasized its work would continue.

Several of the court’s prosecutors have already been targeted by US sanctions after it issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant in 2024.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio even vowed in July to “dismantle” the ICC, accusing it of “waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles,” but with “the force of so-called international law.”

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Without referencing these efforts, the Nobel committee warned that international law is “an absolute necessity” for peace, even if has struggled to hold the world’s most powerful actors responsible for their actions.

“History has shown that a world operating without the rule of law is unjust, unwise and inhumane,” the committee continued. “The judges – those who guard the thin red line between order and chaos – are therefore highly deserving of our praise. But today, as these same judges are sanctioned, and their institutions are attacked.”

Pillay, who has served as a judge at both major international courts and as the UN human rights chief, embodies many of the values the committee wanted to emphasize. She too warned that international law, the ICC in particular and human rights are under attack, undermining the principle that justice is required for lasting peace.

The choice was a brave one, Haakon Gjerløw, acting director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, told CNN. “It is big political actors that are pushing against some of these institutions, against some of the legal orders.”

Choosing an individual, rather than the institutions for which she works, “shows that we as individuals might work towards peace in our different capacities,” Gjerløw added.

Born on September 23, 1941, Pillay grew up in a family of Indian Tamil origin in Durban, South Africa, while the country was still under apartheid.

Donations from her local community helped her enrol in classes for non-white students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and it was there that she first came across transcripts of the Nuremberg Trials. They transfixed her, both by demonstrating the idea of countries coming together to pursue criminal justice and as a framework to understand apartheid-era crimes.

After graduating, she defended anti-apartheid activists, exposed the torture of political detainees and successfully sued to stop her own detained husband from being tortured.

“I won access to lawyers for political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela,” she wrote in a 2021 CNN op-ed . “The first judge’s chambers I entered was my own, in 1995, as the first non-White woman to serve on the High Court.”

However, she never served her full term on South Africa’s High Court as she was elected by the UN General Assembly to be a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which sought to prosecute those responsible for the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

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I’ve spent my life fighting for human rights – and the job is not done

Pillay was instrumental in two significant legal precedents set by that tribunal – firstly, that rape and sexual violence could constitute a crime against humanity and genocide, and secondly, that a defendant could face “charges of incitement to commit genocide purely on the basis of spreading propaganda,” the Nobel committee said.

She served as a judge at the ICC from 2003-2008 before being appointed as the UN human rights chief. She is currently a judge at the International Court of Justice in a case where Myanmar has been accused of genocide.

The Nobel committee’s decision to award Pillay the peace prize triggered a backlash from Israel on Friday, which has strenuously denied allegations of genocide.

Netanyahu condemned the Nobel committee, saying it had “lost its moral compass” and accusing Pillay of “lies.”

There has been no reaction yet from Trump, who has made no secret of his desire for the prize.

The Nobel Peace Prize has gone to human rights pioneer Navi Pillay. The South African was integral to the anti-apartheid movement, served as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and recently led the UN commission that concluded Israel committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.

In an impromptu speech in Nuremberg on Friday, Pillay dedicated her Nobel Prize to “all of the survivors of international crimes” and to those defending international criminal justice “whose compassion and courage continue to ensure that impunity will not be allowed to reign.

“Perhaps it was meant to be that I was in this historic courtroom 600 where the Nuremberg Trials were held when the announcement was made and I was informed of the award.”

CNN’s Lauren Kent, Arina Porkhovnik, Dana Karni, Jennifer Hansler, Jo Shelley and Lauren Said-Moorhouse contributed reporting.

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南非法学家纳维·皮莱荣获今年的诺贝尔和平奖时，她恰好在德国纽伦堡法院参加一个会议。近 80 年前，纳粹领导人的里程碑式审判正是在这里奠定了现代国际法的基础。

当人权界的同事们为这位前国际刑事法院法官的胜利鼓掌并表示祝贺时，她的第一反应却是：“这是真的吗？我以为这一定是开玩笑。”

“如果你们再多鼓掌一点，我或许就能和（美国总统唐纳德）特朗普分享这个奖项了，”她打趣道，指的是去年的获奖者将奖章颁给了美国总统，然后她又补充说，“能和朋友、同事们在一起真是太好了，他们都支持人权。”

近年来，该群体的工作和国际法律秩序日益受到攻击——诺贝尔委员会在决定授予 85 岁的皮莱诺贝尔奖时，也急于强调这一事实。

委员会重点介绍了皮莱，他曾在多个国际法庭任职，并监督了一份 2025 年联合国报告，该报告得出结论，以色列在加沙犯下了种族灭绝罪。委员会表示，此举旨在“提醒世界，法治——无论是国家层面的还是国际层面的——都是我们为确保和平而建立的体系的基础”。

这条信息并非明确针对任何特定国家，但其言外之意是谴责那些削弱国际法律机构的国家——尤其是美国。

皮莱胜诉数小时后，特朗普政府宣布对国际刑事法院实施新的制裁。国际刑事法院成立于2002年，旨在起诉被控犯有战争罪、反人类罪和种族灭绝罪的个人。国际刑事法院谴责此举是“对法治和国际法律秩序根基的攻击”，呼吁其他国家支持该法院，并强调其工作将继续进行。

该法院的几名检察官已经因美国于 2024 年对以色列总理本雅明·内塔尼亚胡及其前国防部长约阿夫·加兰特发出逮捕令而受到美国制裁。

美国国务卿马可·卢比奥甚至在7月份誓言要“解散”国际刑事法院，指责该法院“不是用子弹或导弹，而是用所谓的国际法的力量，对我国发动战争”。

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诺贝尔委员会没有提及这些努力，而是警告说，国际法是和平的“绝对必要条件”，尽管它在追究世界上最强大的行为体对其行为的责任方面一直举步维艰。

委员会继续说道：“历史已经证明，一个没有法治的世界是不公正、不明智且不人道的。因此，法官——那些守护秩序与混乱之间那条脆弱红线的人——理应受到我们的赞扬。但今天，这些法官却遭到制裁，他们的机构也受到攻击。”

皮莱曾在两大国际法院担任法官，也曾担任联合国人权事务高级专员，她身上体现了许多委员会希望强调的价值观。她也警告说，国际法，特别是国际刑事法院和人权正遭受攻击，这破坏了“正义是持久和平的必要条件”这一原则。

奥斯陆和平研究所代理所长哈康·杰尔洛夫告诉CNN，这是一个勇敢的选择。“正是强大的政治势力在挑战这些机构，挑战某些法律秩序。”

杰尔洛夫补充说，选择个人而不是她所服务的机构，“表明我们作为个人可以在各自的能力范围内为和平做出贡献”。

皮莱于 1941 年 9 月 23 日出生，在南非德班的一个印度泰米尔裔家庭长大，当时南非仍处于种族隔离制度之下。

来自当地社区的捐助帮助她进入夸祖鲁-纳塔尔大学的非白人学生课程学习。正是在那里，她第一次接触到纽伦堡审判的记录。这些记录深深吸引了她，它们不仅展现了各国携手推进刑事司法的理念，也为理解种族隔离时期的罪行提供了一个框架。

毕业后，她为反种族隔离活动人士辩护，揭露政治犯遭受酷刑，并成功提起诉讼，阻止了她被拘留的丈夫遭受酷刑。

“我为包括纳尔逊·曼德拉在内的政治犯争取到了获得律师辩护的权利，”她在2021年为CNN撰写的一篇评论文章中写道。“1995年，我进入的第一个法官办公室就是我自己的办公室，当时我是最高法院第一位非白人女性法官。”

然而，她从未在南非高等法院完成她的全部任期，因为她被联合国大会选举为卢旺达问题国际刑事法庭的法官，该法庭旨在起诉那些对 1994 年卢旺达种族灭绝负有责任的人。

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我毕生致力于争取人权——而这项工作远未结束。

诺贝尔委员会表示，皮莱在该法庭确立的两项重要法律先例中发挥了重要作用——首先，强奸和性暴力可能构成危害人类罪和种族灭绝罪；其次，被告可能“仅仅因为散布宣传就面临煽动种族灭绝的指控”。

在被任命为联合国人权事务高级专员之前，她于2003年至2008年担任国际刑事法院法官。目前，她正在国际法院审理一起缅甸被指控犯有种族灭绝罪的案件。

诺贝尔委员会决定授予皮莱和平奖，这一决定在周五引发了以色列的强烈反对，以色列强烈否认了种族灭绝的指控。

内塔尼亚胡谴责诺贝尔委员会，称其“丧失了道德准则”，并指责皮莱“撒谎”。

特朗普目前尚未对此作出回应，但他毫不掩饰自己对奖项的渴望。

诺贝尔和平奖授予了人权先驱纳维·皮莱。这位南非人是反种族隔离运动的重要人物，曾担任卢旺达问题国际刑事法庭的法官，并于近期领导了联合国委员会，该委员会最终认定以色列在加沙对巴勒斯坦人犯下了种族灭绝罪。

周五，皮莱在纽伦堡发表即兴演讲，将她的诺贝尔奖献给“所有国际犯罪的幸存者”以及那些捍卫国际刑事司法的人们，“他们的同情心和勇气继续确保有罪不罚现象不会继续存在”。

“或许冥冥之中自有安排，我当时就在纽伦堡审判的600号历史法庭里，亲耳听到宣布获奖的消息。”

CNN 的 Lauren Kent、Arina Porkhovnik、Dana Karni、Jennifer Hansler、Jo Shelley 和 Lauren Said-Moorhouse 也参与了报道。