US President Donald Trump criticised the Norwegian Nobel Committee on 9 October after it awarded the 2026 peace prize to South African jurist Navi Pillay, saying the decision had permanently damaged the award’s credibility.
Speaking at a rally in Syracuse, New York, Trump said the prize had been “forever discredited”, according to the Associated Press. He argued that his own record deserved recognition and criticised Norway over the committee’s choice.
The committee announced that Pillay had won for her efforts to promote peace and international law. Its explanation highlighted her contribution to bringing prosecutions for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Trump again claimed to have ended eight wars. Asharq Al-Awsat reported that some of the situations he counts were tensions rather than wars, and that his role in easing them was disputed.
His criticism of the choice also focused on Pillay’s association with the United Nations. She served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, according to the Nobel Committee’s published biography.
Pillay’s career spans national courts, international criminal tribunals and UN investigations. The committee said she had helped strengthen international legal institutions and praised her independence and judicial expertise.
Born in Durban into a family of Indian Tamil descent, she became a lawyer during apartheid and established her own law firm in 1967. She was appointed to South Africa’s High Court in 1995.
She subsequently served at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Court. From 2021 to 2025, she chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, according to the committee.
The committee also identified her role as an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice in the case concerning allegations of genocide against Myanmar.
Its public explanation presented the award as support for resolving conflicts through international law. That explanation does not establish why any other individual was not selected: the Nobel Committee keeps nominations and its assessments confidential for 50 years.
