Former UN rights chief Navi Pillay wins Nobel Peace Prize

Charlotte Gallagher (0:00)

This is The Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Charlotte Gadiga, and 1300 Hours GMT on Friday, the 9th of October, these are our main stories. The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded to Navi Pillay, a South African judge who's been at the forefront of global efforts to defend human rights. Saudi officials say three people have been killed at Riyadh Airport in the latest Houthi attacks. We look at the condemnation of a Pentagon plan to live stream an execution. And an investigation is underway in New York into why ICE agents shot a man who was in a car with his young child.

Olena (0:44)

Also in this podcast, I decided that the better option will be a little village without any factories, any storages and any railway stations. Everything that can be Russian's target.

Charlotte Gallagher (0:58)

We speak to the people forced to flee Kiev after hanging on for four years as Russia's bombardment intensifies and winter looms. We begin with the announcement of the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Jørgen Watne Frydnes (1:14)

The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided to award the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 to 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.

Charlotte Gallagher (1:42)

That was the chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Juergen Wattner-Freudnes, awarding the prize to the former UN human rights chief, Navi Pillay. The committee also said she had been instrumental in ensuring war crimes were prosecuted. Navi Pillay, a South African lawyer of Indian origin, joins the likes of Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and Mother Teresa, who have previously won the award.

Speaking in the Nuremberg courtroom where Nazi leaders were prosecuted after the Second World War, she gave her reaction to the win.

Navi Pillay (2:15)

This award strengthens my conviction that we must stand together in defense of the rule of law and an international legal order based on principle rather than selectivity. We are living through an era when international law and human rights are under significant political attack.

Charlotte Gallagher (2:38)

Earlier, I spoke to our reporter Charles Haviland, who was interviewed Navi Pillay. He began by telling me about the work she's done.

Charles Haviland (2:45)

Recently, she oversaw the publishing of a report by the UN Commission of Inquiry, which concluded that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza. This is a conclusion that Israel has rejected. But of course, you mentioned South Africa. She is a South African. She was part of what the apartheid regime in South Africa all those years ago labeled the Indian community. So one of these stratified racial groups. She set up her own law firm in South Africa a full 27 years before the ending of apartheid. So she was active in mobilizing and taking legal cases against apartheid.

After that, she served among many other things on the tribunal on the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s. And then she served six years starting in 2008 as the UN Human Rights Chief, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Charlotte Gallagher (3:38)

And I know that you interviewed her. What was your impression of her?

Charles Haviland (3:41)

Yes, I interviewed her during that tenure, when I was based in Nepal as the correspondent there. And she visited Nepal, which was just coming out of a very bitter civil war. I would say that what I remember is that she was entirely straightforward. She was also at pains to be even handed. There were mass killings that had taken place. There were disappearances still unsolved to this day, perpetrated both by the regime of the former royalists and the Maoists, who were then entering government. And the point is that she wanted to look at the facts on the ground, rather than putting any ideological hat on. And in the years that followed, you can see that, for instance, back in 2014, she was also accusing Israel of possible war crimes in its then offensive in the occupied Palestinian territories.

She was also accusing Hamas of similar possible crimes. And a couple of years before that, she had been in Syria under the former Assad regime and denounced what she saw as their violations, their killings of children up to that time. So I think that her straightforward application of human rights dictums is what's been quite notable in her career.

Charlotte Gallagher (4:53)

And has there been any reaction? I know it didn't happen that long ago, but what have people been saying?

Charles Haviland (4:58)

There's been a very positive reaction from the UN Human Rights Office, the OHCHR. Its spokesperson described as amazing news, saying we need more dedication and commitment to human rights and saying we hope it will encourage and continue to encourage and inspire others to speak out in protection and promotion of the human rights of all people.