Her career spans the struggle against apartheid, landmark prosecutions for genocide and sexual violence, and six years at the helm of the United Nations’ human-rights office. The 85-year-old South African jurist of Indian origin was recognised for her efforts to promote peace and international law, said Jorgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
Former UN human rights chief Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, a judge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ), has won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize .
She was born in Durban, South Africa, in 1941, into a family of Indian origin, at a time when the country’s apartheid system enforced racial discrimination.
“We grew up very poor. My father was a bus driver, and then seven children, the usual seven children. She was also the first Black woman to serve as a judge of South Africa’s High Court.
Because most people assume that in my country if you are Indian you’re better off than the African people, i tell the story. In 1967, she became the first woman to establish a law practice in Natal, now KwaZulu-Natal. In 1995, Pillay was appointed a judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), established by the United Nations to prosecute those responsible for genocide and other serious violations of international humanitarian law committed in Rwanda in 1994. In 2003, Pillay was elected a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the permanent court established to prosecute individuals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and, under specified conditions, the crime of aggression.
Yes, so all of us were poor and we struggled together,” she said in a United Nations interview .
