Klamberg: “Those who have devoted their lives to pursuing international justice deserve to be recognized”
“This prize does not mean that international justice has arrived — it means the world still believes that those who have devoted their lives to pursuing it deserve to be recognized.”
That was Mark Klamberg, professor of public international law at Stockholm University and Stockholm Center on Global Governance, speaking to Swedish public service broadcaster Sveriges Radio about today’s Nobel Peace Prize to South African judge Navanethem "Navi" Pillay.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND. JUNE 14, 2022. Navanethem Pillay, then chair of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, briefs reporters on the Commission's first report. UN Photo: Jean Marc Ferré
The Norwegian Nobel Committee honored Pillay “for her efforts to promote peace and international law.”
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Bio
Dr. Pillay was appointed to the High Court of South Africa in 1995. Four years later she became a judge and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). She was then named to serve as a judge on the International Criminal Court (ICC). From 2008 to 2014 she served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Navi Pillay also chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory from 2021 to 2025, and in 2019 she became an ad hoc judge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case in which Myanmar stands accused of genocide. (Source: nobelprize.org)
Last updated: 2026-10-14
Source: Department of Political Science