Navi Pillay

Navanetham 'Navi' Pillay has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026. The 85 year old South African jurist and former UN Human Rights chief initially thought the news was a joke. Born in Durban, South Africa, to a Tamil family, her grandparents had come to South Africa as indentured labourers to work in the sugarcane fields. Born under apartheid rule neither of her parents were educated and her mother fought for her daughters to attend school where Navi's teachers saw her potential. The community then raised money enabling her to attend university. In 1967 she was the first woman to…