Level 1 - Absolute Beginner
A woman has won the Nobel Peace Prize. Her name is Navi Pillay. She is from South Africa.
The prize was announced on Friday in Oslo. Oslo is a city in Norway. The prize is for her work on peace and the law.
Navi Pillay helped to put people on trial for terrible crimes. She was also a judge. Later she worked for the United Nations.
The head of the United Nations is happy. But Israel is angry about the prize. Israel does not like her report on Gaza.
- prize
- A reward for very good work.
- judge
- A person who decides cases in a court.
- peace
- A time with no war.
- law
- A rule made by a country or the world.
- crime
- An act that the law forbids.
- angry
- Very upset and not happy.
- report
- A paper that tells what people found.
- announce
- To tell everyone some news.
Level 2 - Elementary
Navanethem Pillay, known as Navi, has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced the award on Friday, October 9, in Oslo. It was the 125th Peace Prize.
Pillay is a lawyer and judge from South Africa. She fought against apartheid, the old system of unfair racial rules. Later she was a judge at the court for the Rwanda genocide, and then she became the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The committee said she has helped make sure that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are punished. The prize is worth 12 million Swedish kronor, about 1.2 million dollars. She will receive it in Oslo on December 10.
Not everyone is pleased. Pillay led a United Nations inquiry on the Palestinian territories. Its report in September 2025 said Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel and the United States reject that finding, and Israel's Foreign Ministry called the prize a grotesque weaponisation of an award.
- committee
- A group of people chosen to make a decision.
- apartheid
- The old racial rules in South Africa.
- genocide
- Killing a whole group of people on purpose.
- tribunal
- A special court.
- inquiry
- A careful study to find the facts.
- reject
- To say that something is wrong.
- award
- A prize given for good work.
- punish
- To make someone suffer for a crime.
Level 3 - Intermediate
The Norwegian Nobel Committee has awarded the 2026 Peace Prize to Navanethem Pillay, a South African jurist whose career runs from the fight against apartheid to the heart of international justice. The committee said she has been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted.
Pillay, who is of Indian origin, served as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, later became the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and went on to chair a UN commission of inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Sources differ on which international court she serves on today, but they agree about the prize itself.
The choice was welcomed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who called it a tribute to everyone working to uphold and defend international law. It was condemned by Israel's Foreign Ministry as the grotesque weaponisation of an award, a reaction to the commission's September 2025 report, which concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza. Israel and the United States rejected those findings.
The 12 million kronor prize, worth about 1.2 million dollars, will be presented in Oslo on December 10.
- jurist
- An expert in law.
- instrumental
- Playing an important part in making something happen.
- prosecute
- To bring someone to court for a crime.
- commission
- An official group set up to study a problem.
- uphold
- To support and keep a rule or principle.
- condemn
- To say strongly that something is wrong.
- descent
- Family origin.
- tribute
- Something said or done to show respect.
Level 4 - Advanced
When the Norwegian Nobel Committee named Navanethem Pillay as the 2026 Peace laureate, it rewarded a lifetime spent turning the abstract language of international law into prosecutions. By its own account she has been instrumental in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide do not go unanswered, and the citation reads as much like a defence of a besieged institutional order as a tribute to one jurist.
Her trajectory is unusually complete. Pillay challenged apartheid as a lawyer in South Africa, sat on the bench of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, rose to become UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and later led the commission of inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Reports disagree on whether she is now described as a judge of the International Court of Justice or as a former judge of the International Criminal Court, a discrepancy that does not touch the substance of the award.
That commission is where the controversy lies. Its September 2025 report concluded that Israel had committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a finding that Israel and the United States rejected. Israel's Foreign Ministry responded to the prize by calling it the grotesque weaponisation of an award, while Secretary-General Guterres hailed it as a tribute to all those working to uphold and defend international law.
The committee has seldom chosen quietly, and this decision follows that pattern: a prize worth 12 million kronor, roughly 1.2 million dollars, to be presented in Oslo on December 10, and a signal that the Nobel Institute regards the machinery of accountability as the front line of peace work. Whether governments that distrust that machinery will be moved by the signal is another matter.
- laureate
- A person who has received a major prize.
- citation
- The official statement explaining why a prize is given.
- besieged
- Surrounded by pressure and attack.
- trajectory
- The path of a career or life over time.
- discrepancy
- A difference between two accounts that should match.
- substance
- The real and important core of something.
- accountability
- The duty to answer for one's actions.
- hail
- To praise publicly and with enthusiasm.
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