The Nation October 14, 2026/November 2026 Issue, by Stephen Zunes
She believes that human rights and international law are universal principles that must be enforced regardless of violator’s ideology, ethnicity, or geostrategic alignment.
With international law and human rights under attack by such major powers as the United States and Russia and with ongoing genocidal wars in Sudan, Myanmar, and Palestine, the Norwegian Nobel Committee, in awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the prominent South African jurist Navi Pillay, has sent a message that these foundational principles of the post–World War II era indeed do matter.
In the statement announcing its decision, the committee declared, “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.” While not specifically naming such major violators as the United States, Russia, Israel, and Morocco, the Nobel committee warned that international law is “an absolute necessity” for peace, noting how Pillay embodies these values—values that are currently being undermined by Washington.
It is hard to imagine a better representative of the efforts to defend human rights through international law. Among many prominent roles, the Harvard-educated Pillay has served as a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC), as UN high commissioner for human rights, as president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and as a jurist on the International Court of Justice investigating charges of genocide in Myanmar.
The reaction from Washington was swift. President Donald Trump called the decision by the Norwegian committee “an indelible stain on the country of Norway” and said that the Nobel Peace Prize “has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are anti-democracy, and really enemies of civilization.” [more]
