Navanetem "Navi" Pillay, former High Commissioner UN for human rights and judge International Court of Justice, received the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in Oslo.
Pillai was awarded for her commitment to the promotion of peace and international law, said Jörgen Vatne Fridnes, president of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Pillay's work "represents a source of hope and inspiration for all those who strive to create a more peaceful world," Vatne Friednes said when announcing the news of her victory.
"At a time when the number of wars and conflicts is increasing, and judges and institutions of international law are exposed to political attacks, the Nobel Committee wishes to remind that the ability to resolve conflicts without the use of force or violence depends on the international rule of law," the committee's statement said.
Pillay was born in 1941 in Durban, South Africa, where she later studied at the University of Natal. She graduated in humanities in 1963 and in law in 1965. After her studies, she began a career as a lawyer working with criminal lawyer NT Naiker and became involved in the legal fight against apartheid.
In 1967, she established her own law firm, becoming the first woman to do so in her home province of Natal. In 1981, she enrolled at Harvard University as part of the "Harvard - South Africa" scholarship exchange program and earned a master's degree in law. In 1988, she defended her thesis and graduated from Harvard Law School with a doctorate in legal sciences.
Photo: Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP, FileNavanetem "Navi" Pilaj in 2012
She was nominated and confirmed as a judge of the High Court of South Africa in 1995 by the Bar-supervised Judicial Service Commission. Towards the end of her mandate, in 1995, the Minister of Justice Abdullah Omar and President Mandela proposed her as a candidate for work within the UN system, specifically for the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR).
From 1999 to 2003, Pillaj served at the ICTR, where she was also elected as the president of the judicial panel. The Assembly of Member States of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) elected her as a judge of that court in 2003, and she was a member of the Appeals Chamber until 2008.
In 2008, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appointed her, and the UN General Assembly confirmed her appointment to the position of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
He is currently serving as an ad hoc judge of the International Court of Justice in the Gambia v. Myanmar case.
Additionally, she is Chair of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Chair of the Madrid-based International Commission Against the Death Penalty, and Chair of the Advisory Board of the International Academy of the Nuremberg Principles.
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