Navi Pillay wins the Nobel Peace Prize; Trump calls the decision a "stain" on Norway

The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday, 9 October, to Navi Pillay, the South African jurist, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and former international judge, BBC and other outlets reported.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee honoured her “for her efforts to promote peace and international law”. Committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes said her work had been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.

Pillay, 85, heard the news at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg — the site of the post-war trials — and reacted that “it must be a joke”. She joked to the applauding crowd that if they clapped a little more, she might share the prize with Trump.

Trump’s reaction

Hours later, at a rally in Syracuse, New York, President Donald Trump called the decision “disgraceful and embarrassing”, said he had never heard of the “mystery person”, and said it was “an indelible stain on the country of Norway”, adding “we will not forget”. He repeated his claim, without evidence, to have settled eight wars.

The prize is decided by the independent Norwegian Nobel Committee, not the Norwegian government — a point Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre made to Trump last year, when the award went to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.