Nobel Peace Prize Winner Mocks Trump to Cheers From Crowd

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Navi Pillay took a playful swipe at Donald Trump after being recognised for her work advancing peace and international law. The South African jurist and former UN high commissioner for human rights joked that she might “share the prize” with the US president if the applause continued. “If you clap a little bit more I may share this prize with Trump,” Pillay said in a video posted on X by Amnesty International’s secretary general, showing her receiving a standing ovation after the announcement. The award is likely to frustrate Trump, who put intense pressure on the Norwegian Nobel Committee last year in an effort to secure the honour. The US president has long viewed a Nobel Peace Prize as an elusive achievement. Pakistan nominated him again this year, citing his “historic role in advancing peace in South Asia”.

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado received the 2025 prize for her campaign to bring about a democratic transition in Venezuela. The committee praised her as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness”. Machado had been largely absent from public view since January, when she led protests against then-president Nicolas Maduro following his re-election, which was widely disputed because of his reputation as a dictator. She dedicated the award to Trump, thanking him for “his decisive support of our cause”, and later handed him her Nobel medal after Maduro was ousted in January this year. The gesture was symbolic: the Nobel Committee has made clear that the award itself cannot be transferred.

Pillay’s career “is a source of hope and inspiration to all those who seek to bring about a more peaceful world,” Jørgen Watne Frydnes, chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said while announcing the decision in Oslo on Friday. Her selection is expected to be viewed as a pointed rebuke to Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, both of whom have rejected the conclusions of a UN commission led by Pillay that Israel committed genocide in Gaza. The two leaders have also repeatedly attacked the international institutions in which Pillay has served.

Israel condemned the decision, arguing that it gave legitimacy to “anti-Israel hatred” and invoking Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. “Now that the Nobel commission has rewarded the biggest lie of the 21st century, Joseph Goebbels is certainly applauding from hell,” Israel’s foreign ministry wrote on X. Although Pillay’s work has spanned the globe, it has also drawn intense criticism in places including Israel and apartheid-era South Africa, where she and other legal figures confronted some of the world’s most sensitive conflicts and defended vulnerable communities. Pillay, 85, learned of the award while attending the Nuremberg Forum in Germany, a conference on international law held in the city where the Nazi war crimes trials helped shape the modern legal order.

“Firstly, at this venue, your applause means a great deal to me,” Pillay told the audience after receiving a standing ovation. “You know, you don’t want to receive an award, prize or anything unless the public agrees that you deserve this.” Then, drawing on her legal background, she added: “But being a lawyer and a judge, I still want to verify this information.” Pillay chaired the Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, established by the UN-backed Human Rights Council. A year ago, the commission concluded that Israel was responsible for genocide in Gaza and had acted with the specific intent to destroy Palestinians there.

The commission further reported that Israel’s president, prime minister and former defence minister had “incited the commission of genocide”. Israel, which has refused to cooperate with the body since its creation in 2021, has categorically rejected the allegations. Pillay has also pushed back against accusations that she is antisemitic or ignored the Hamas attacks in Israel. In an interview with the Associated Press last year, she recalled working alongside Jewish lawyers during the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. She also noted that she was invited to Israel while serving as the UN’s human rights chief from 2008 to 2014.

Pillay’s award has also revived attention on Trump’s confrontation with the International Criminal Court. His administration has sanctioned 13 ICC officials, including prominent prosecutors and nine judges, among them the court’s Japanese president, Tomoko Akane. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has described the effort as a “sweeping campaign to dismantle the threat posed by the International Criminal Court”. Speaking at the UN General Assembly last month, Trump branded the ICC an “out of control institution” and an “anti-American tribunal with no jurisdiction” over the United States, urging member states to leave what he called a “rogue institution” immediately.

There are concerns that sanctions could eventually target the court as a whole, potentially restricting its ability to pursue justice. The Norwegian committee said it selected Pillay in part to reinforce international law during a period of escalating conflict. Watne Frydnes said the honour was intended as a warning to those trying to weaken “the international rules based system and the institutions” that support it. “At a time when the number of wars and conflicts is rising, and when judges and institutions of international law are under political attack, the Nobel Committee wishes to issue a reminder that the ability to resolve conflicts without force or violence is dependent on the international rule of law,” the committee said in a statement.

“An international legal system in which war criminals are held to account and the victims of abuse see justice served is a precondition for a peaceful world.” Pillay is also serving as an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest court, in the genocide case involving Myanmar. Countries without a national representative on the court’s permanent 15-member bench may appoint a judge of their choice for a particular case. Gambia, which brought the proceedings in 2019, selected Pillay after accusing Myanmar of genocide against the Rohingya. The Norwegian Nobel Committee said it received 287 nominations for this year’s peace prize, slightly more than a quarter of them submitted on behalf of organisations.

Experts say the committee generally weighs lasting contributions to peace, efforts to build international fraternity and the often-unheralded work of institutions that support those aims. Nominees may be put forward by a limited range of individuals and organisations, including national leaders and politicians, university professors, foreign policy institute directors, previous Nobel laureates and members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee. Four other Nobel awards were announced earlier this week. The medicine prize went to three scientists whose research produced a light-based tool for exploring the brain.

The physics award honoured a scientist whose work shed light on a rare class of neutrinos. The chemistry prize went to two scientists whose research clarified the puzzling mirror-image structures of molecules, work that has contributed to the development of numerous medicines. Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson won the literature prize on Thursday for “bold and inventive” writing that combines classical and contemporary influences while crossing the line between poetry and prose. The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences is due to be announced on Monday. This year’s prize fund is 12 million Swedish kronor, worth roughly £910,000, whether awarded to an individual, a group of laureates or an organisation.