The 2026 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded on Friday, October 9, to Navi Pillay, the South African judge and former United Nations human rights chief. A day earlier, the Nobel Prize in Literature went to the Canadian poet Anne Carson.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee honored Pillay “for her efforts to promote peace and international law.” It said she “has been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.”

Pillay was born in South Africa in 1941 to a family of Tamil Indian origin. She was the first woman of color to open a law practice in the country, defended anti-apartheid activists and helped win rights for prisoners on Robben Island. She later served as a judge and president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, as a judge at the International Criminal Court and, from 2008 to 2014, as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

More recently she chaired the UN commission of inquiry whose 2025 report concluded that Israel's actions in Gaza amounted to genocide. UN Secretary-General António Guterres called her “a steadfast, independent voice of justice.” Volker Türk, who holds her former post and has repeatedly raised the alarm about Haiti, called the award well deserved.

Carson, 76, was born in Toronto and has taught classics at several North American universities. The Swedish Academy cited her “bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature.”

Her books include “Eros the Bittersweet,” the verse novel “Autobiography of Red” and “Nox,” a work about the death of her brother. Her translations include Sappho, Sophocles and Euripides. The academy reached her in Iceland. She “was very taken by surprise,” said its permanent secretary, Ingrid Carlberg.

The prizes will be presented on December 10.