Navi Pillay awarded Nobel Peace Prize for her efforts to promote peace and international law by Norwegian Nobel Committee, United Nations News   9 October 2026   Announcement, Nobel Peace Prize 2026 - Norwegian Nobel Committee   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. In practice, cases brought under international law have produced different results depending on who is the perpetrator and who is the victim.   Nonetheless, we have seen that more and more conflicts are being addressed through diplomacy, treaties and legal mechanisms, rather than threats, violence and warfare. Leaders and populations alike have come to the same conclusion: international law is a foundation for a more peaceful world.   At a time of existential challenges – including more wars and conflicts than the world has seen in a long time – international law is no longer just a supplement to peace and security. It is an absolute necessity.   And yet, the system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack. We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice. Whenever might overtakes right, it undermines stability, trust and peaceful co-existence.   In awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wants to remind the world that the rule of law – national and international – underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conflicts non-violently. Peace requires justice.   History has shown that a world operating without the rule of law is unjust, unwise and inhumane. 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, we need people of courage, vision and determination – qualities that Navi Pillay demonstrates in her work on the bench.   Navi Pillay has held states and national leaders accountable and brought hope to victims of violence and conflict. In all the positions she has held, she has stressed the responsibility of individuals and states to comply with the rule of law. She has also helped define the relevant norms and legal principles. When the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda established that rape and sexual violence could constitute a crime against humanity – as well as genocide – her influence was a significant factor. In the same case, Ms Pillay was instrumental in a separate legal breakthrough: for the first time, a defendant faced charges of incitement to commit genocide purely on the basis of spreading propaganda.   The Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 springs directly from Alfred Nobel’s will. Navi Pillay strengthens fraternity between nations and – by systematically advancing the use of tribunals for peace and justice – she provides substance, direction and motivation for peace conferences in their modern form.   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. Navi Pillay’s commitment to justice and human dignity is a source of hope and inspiration to all who seek to bring about a more peaceful world.   http://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2026/press-release/ http://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/articles/announcement-of-the-nobel-peace-prize-2026 http://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2026/pillay/facts/   Oct. 2026   Former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay awarded Nobel Peace Prize. (UN News)   South African jurist and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay announced as the winner of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize.   She was honoured “for her efforts to promote peace and international law”, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement.   The committee said the award was going “to a person who with exceptional courage and integrity has led the way towards a more comprehensive global legal order,” noting that she “has been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.”   Ms. Pillay served as the UN human rights chief from September 2008 through August 2014, but her career has spanned more than 50 years - from fighting apartheid in her homeland to defending civilians in conflict zones.   She is a former chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and was appointed a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague, in addition to serving as an ad hoc judge with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN's highest court.   “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,” the Nobel Committee said.   In a statement congratulating the new Nobel laureate, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Ms. Pillay has shown “that the force of law must prevail over the law of force and that defending human rights is the surest safeguard against injustice.”   He hailed her as “a champion of international law and human rights, and a steadfast, independent voice of justice”, adding that “in its citation, the Nobel Committee reminded the world that peace must be built on lasting principles, not the will of the powerful."   Navanethem “Navi” Pillay was born in South Africa in 1941 to a Tamil Indian family and was the first non-white woman to establish a legal practice in the country.   As a lawyer, she acted as a defence attorney for anti-apartheid activists, exposing torture, and helping to establish key rights for prisoners on notorious Robben Island.   In her role as chair of the Independent International Commission, which is appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, she oversaw its 2025 report that said Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip constituted genocide.   On receiving the news of Ms. Pillay's honour, the current UN human rights chief, Volker Turk, warmly congratulated the woman he described as a big sister.   “To say it is well deserved is a total understatement, and especially at a time when human rights are under attack on so many fronts, including from those who wield enormous power, this award is particularly poignant,” he said.   “It is an award to all those who around the world dedicate their lives to the defense of human rights, often at great risk to their security.”   It is “a recognition, a reaffirmation, that human rights, the rule of law and justice and accountability are fundamental to everything - to peace, to security and prosperity”.   In an October 2025 interview with UN News in Geneva, Ms. Pillay reflected on her lifetime of fighting for human rights, justice and equality.   “I didn't think apartheid would end in my lifetime,” she recalled. “So, what happened? We had the collective support of people all over the world, even children. If we can achieve that, we can have a better human rights protection system.”   Her experience in the anti-apartheid struggle shaped her belief in international solidarity, which she carried into her role as a judge and president of the ITCR, which prosecuted persons responsible for the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.   During her eight years there, she helped establish groundbreaking legal precedents in the fight against genocide and gender-based violence.   As UN human rights chief, Ms. Pillay continued to champion the participation of civil society and victims’ voices in shaping global human rights standards.   “When the UN started, it was just a club for the States,” she told UN News. “Everything we have today for human rights protection didn’t happen just because the States woke up one day. It comes from the pressure of civil society. That’s why I value these institutions.”   http://news.un.org/en/story/2026/10/1168558 http://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2026/10/former-un-human-rights-chief-navi-pillay-wins-nobel-peace-prize http://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statements/2026-10-09/statement-the-secretary-general-the-2026-nobel-peace-prize Visit the related web page
	Penalising peasant seed systems threatens global food supply by UN Working Group on the rights of peasants   16 Sep. 2026   Farmers across Africa, Asia, Europe and Latin America face fines and imprisonment for saving, exchanging and selling seed under laws written for industrial seed markets, the UN Working Group on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas said today.   Punishment for seed sharing goes up to 15 years in prison in some jurisdictions, the Working Group said.   In its latest report to the UN Human Rights Council, the Working Group said almost all the world's food comes from seeds, and traditional systems supply 70 to 90 per cent of the seed sown in many countries.   "Saving and sharing seed are among humanity's oldest agricultural practices, and the reason crops can still withstand drought, floods and disease," said Shalmali Guttal, Chair-Rapporteur of the Working Group. "Criminalising them is unacceptable and counterproductive."   Plant variety protection laws punish farmers who trade seed of a company's protected variety. Certification rules go further, permitting the sale or exchange only of catalogued seed. Peasant varieties, intentionally diverse and continually adapting, do not meet standards for industrial seeds. Peasants trading their own traditional seed thereby become traders of "counterfeit" seed.   The experts noted that women, as the principal custodians of seed, are particularly affected. They select, adapt and make available local varieties, protecting families from debt arising from purchased seeds and expensive inputs. Rules penalising traditional practices undermine their income and food autonomy.   "Traditional seed systems should be celebrated, not prosecuted," Guttal said. "By exercising their right to seeds, peasants feed the world, protect nature and find sustainable ways forward through the climate crisis.”   Enforcement has hardened in recent years, the report found. Infringements once settled as private disputes are now pursued as crimes against industrial property, with molecular markers, drones, satellite imagery and anonymous tip lines inviting reports of "suspicious seed activity."   The report traces the pressure to the 1991 Act of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV 1991), which trade agreements increasingly require States to adopt, and to World Bank financing conditioned on UPOV-aligned reform.   The report also examines the concentration of the seed market, where four corporations, Bayer, Corteva, Syngenta and BASF, control more than half of US$81 billion in annual sales. Patents are staked on digital sequence information, which allows companies to claim traits without ever obtaining the seed.   “Laws should penalise biopiracy, commodification of seeds and prevent seed monopolies,” the Working Group said.   “War and occupation destroy seed systems outright. In December 2025, military raids forced the closure and seizure of the only Palestinian community-managed seed bank, which held more than 70 varieties collected across the West Bank and Gaza; its seed-multiplication unit had been bulldozed five months earlier.”   The experts said peasant seed survives only by being grown, exchanged and reselected. Varieties kept but not planted stop adapting and knowledge not passed on is gone in a generation. “What is at risk is not only the seed already collected but the knowledge and capacity to go on producing more,” they warned.   In November 2025 the High Court of Kenya at Machakos held that seed sharing is not a crime. In 2021 the Supreme Court of Honduras struck down the country's plant variety protection law, citing articles 19 and 20 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants for violating the right to nutrition, among the first judgments anywhere to invoke the Declaration.   The Working Group urged States to write article 19 of the Declaration into national law, refrain from implementing UPOV 1991 in ways which contravene the rights of peasants, repeal provisions criminalising peasant seed practices, and exempt traditional seed systems from industrial-market rules.   "Seeds are the material basis of the rights to life, food, health, culture and a healthy environment before they are articles of commerce," Guttal said. "Laws and policies must therefore unconditionally protect peasant right to seeds."   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/09/penalising-peasant-seed-systems-threatens-global-food-supply-un-experts http://afsafrica.org/blog/the-ndjamena-declaration-africas-seeds-belong-to-its-peoples/ Visit the related web page
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