Indian-Origin Navanethem 'Navi' Pillay Wins Nobel Peace Prize 2026

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced Navanethem 'Navi' Pillay as the winner of the Peace Prize 2026, the most highly anticipated of the prestigious Nobels.

The Nobel Prize was awarded to Pillay for her "efforts to promote peace and international law." Her "firm moral compass" is a constant in her long career, the committee added.

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Pillay was born into a family of Indian, Tamil-origin under apartheid in South Africa's Durban; she confronted structural discrimination, segregation and exclusion, and turned her advocacy and lived experience into a career path.

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The Peace Prize comes from the will of Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who signed it in 1895. Nobel said the prize should recognise work promoting fraternity between nations, reducing or abolishing standing armies and advancing peace efforts.

Of the 287 candidates that were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year, 208 are individuals and 79 are organisations. After the Nobel prizes awarded for medicine, physics, chemistry, literature and peace, the economics prize on Monday, October 12, wraps up the 2026 Nobel season.

Here's who won each of these prizes:

Physiology/medicine: Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel

Physics: Francis Halzen

Chemistry: Henri Kagan and Kenso Soai

Literature: Anne Carson

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