The Nobel Committee awarded the Peace Prize to former International Criminal Court judge and ex‑UN human rights chief Navi Pillay, citing her work "for her efforts to promote peace and international law," the committee said.
The chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Jørgen Watne Frydnes, said Pillay's work had been "instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide are prosecuted." The citation framed her legal career as paving the way for a "more comprehensive global legal order," according to the committee.
Pillay reacted to the news from Nuremberg's Palace of Justice by saying "it must be a joke" and thanking those who gathered to applaud her. She added a quip that if people clapped more she "may share this prize with Trump," drawing applause and attention to the moment.
Pillay is also noted in reporting as having chaired a UN commission that concluded Israel was guilty of genocide in Gaza, a detail that formed part of her public record referenced by commentators.
Reactions And Wider Consequences
The award immediately prompted sharp criticism from US President Donald Trump, who called the decision "a stain on Norway" and said the United States "should have received the Nobel peace prize." He described the committee as "a handful of radical ideologues who are anti‑democracy and really enemies of civilisation," according to reporting.
Trump also characterised Pillay as "a mystery person" he had "never heard of" and reiterated claims about his own record, saying he had stopped Iran from pursuing a nuclear weapon and that he had saved more lives than anyone in history, while predicting rapid outcomes in conflicts with Iran and over Russia and Ukraine.
The Nobel decision coincided with fresh tensions between Washington and The Hague. The US slapped further sanctions on the International Criminal Court as Pillay's award was announced, a development described as a peak in a long‑running feud between the Trump administration and the court.
The White House has previously accused the Nobel Committee of placing "politics over peace." In January, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado gifted her Nobel medal to Trump and he called the gesture "a wonderful gesture of mutual respect." The Nobel Committee later clarified that a prize "cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others" and that its decision "is final and stands for all time."
