South Africa's Navanethem Navi Pillay wins 2026 Nobel Peace Prize

COLOMBO (News1st): The South Africa-born Pillay, 85 years old, was recognised for her efforts to promote peace and international law, said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo received nominations for 287 candidates for this year’s prize, and just over a quarter of them are organisations. Experts say the committee typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals.

Last year, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, winning recognition as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness”.

Machado gave US President Donald Trump her Nobel medal shortly after the United States ousted then-president Nicolas Maduro. But it was largely a symbolic gesture: the Nobel Committee has said the honour itself cannot be transferred.

Four of this year's Nobels were announced earlier this week.