Navi Pillay won the Nobel Peace Prize. Then she joked she'd share it with Trump.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee gave the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to Navanethem "Navi" Pillay, 85, "for her efforts to promote peace and international law". It could not reach her before the announcement, and its chair asked on air: "If you see a Norwegian number calling, please pick up" (CNN). She heard the news at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, where Nazi Germany's leaders were tried, and to applause joked: "If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump" (AFP, via RTÉ). Trump has long said he deserves the prize (CBS/AP).

Born under apartheid in Durban in 1941, Pillay founded her own law firm in 1967 and, the committee says, defended Nelson Mandela and others. She was a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda; the committee says that when it established that rape and sexual violence could constitute a crime against humanity as well as genocide, "her influence was a significant factor". She was an ICC judge from 2003 to 2008 and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. The committee says she was "instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted", and that "today, as these same judges are sanctioned", courage is needed. The US has sanctioned the ICC after its 2024 arrest warrant for Israel's prime minister (CBS/AP).

The citation does not mention Gaza. In September 2025 a UN commission of inquiry chaired by Pillay said "genocide is occurring in Gaza"; Israel's foreign ministry said it "categorically rejects this distorted and false report" (AFP). The prize is presented in Oslo on 10 December. Pillay said her first thought was "it must be a joke" (CBS/AP).

The telephone on screen is a generic render, not the committee's phone.

SOURCES
Norwegian Nobel Committee; nobelprize.org; CNN; CBS News/AP; RTÉ (AFP/Reuters); JusticeInfo (AFP); Channels TV (AFP); Wikipedia

PHOTOS
US Mission Geneva (public domain, 2014; CC BY 2.0, 2010, 2011); US Army (public domain, 1945); Molly Riley, The White House (public domain); Antônio Cruz / Agência Brasil (CC BY 3.0 BR, 2009); Tony Webster (CC BY 2.0); L. Shyamal (CC BY 3.0, 2008). All file pictures.

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