Nobel Peace Prize for Navi: Encouragement in Difficult Times

The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Navi Pillay is not only a recognition of her lifelong efforts to protect human rights and prosecute the most serious international crimes, but also an important signal in a time when Donald Trump and others are questioning international law.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to South African judge Navi Pillay belongs to the few joyful news of our present. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, after last year's fiasco with Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado, who servilely – and absurdly – handed over the Nobel Peace Prize to Donald Trump, has chosen wisely this time.

On the side of the oppressed

There are few people who embody the fight for human rights and against genocide as much as Navi Pillay. I had the honor of working for her from 2010 to 2014, when she was the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In this role, she demonstrated deep humanism and principledness, especially in issues of fighting racism and protecting the rights of minorities, including migrants. She was not afraid to critically speak out about the policies of European democracies. An example was her official visit to Italy in 2010, during which she also visited Roma ghettos on the outskirts of Rome and a migrant detention center. Of course, the then-government of Silvio Berlusconi did not like this at all.

Navi Pillay, as High Commissioner, was not just the voice of the anti-colonialist "Third World." I remember how openly she spoke out against representatives of African countries regarding discrimination against people with different sexual orientations. She reminded them that it is their duty to follow the example of Nelson Mandela, who helped to legalize the rights of LGBTIQ+ persons in the constitution of the democratic Republic of South Africa, and not to hide comfortably behind public opinion.

However, the key contribution of Navi Pillay is in the fight against the crime of genocide – from Rwanda to Gaza. As a judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, she played a significant role in the historic 1998 ruling that recognized for the first time that genocide can be committed through rape and sexual violence.

Nevertheless, the Nobel Peace Prize for Navi is also – and especially – a sign of support for international law and justice in today's difficult times. The Nobel Committee has clearly taken a stand in favor of an international order based on the rule of law, which today faces a direct attack from those who openly despise it or even seek its collapse.

Will the protection of every person's dignity prevail, or will brutal mightier law?

It cannot surprise us that the Nobel Peace Prize for Navi Pillay – and with it the support for adherence to international law – is disliked by those who themselves violate human rights or even commit genocides. The greater their own guilt, the more fiercely they attack the award and its laureate.

Similarly, they would attack any defender of human rights. The most powerful man on the planet responded to this news with threats directed at Norway and claimed that he should have received the Nobel Prize instead – among other reasons, for the war against Iran (!). This is a world turned completely upside down! Does it mean that the Nobel Peace Prize should be awarded for starting a war? For bombing girls' schools?

Trump dismissed Navi Pillay as "liberal" (which in his understanding means "leftist"), working for the UN, and said that "nobody knows her." Unfortunately, the last part is largely true. We live in a distorted world where we know – and are forced to know – the names of various dictators and psychopaths, without whom we could do just fine. Thanks to the Nobel Peace Prize, however, Navi Pillay will now be known to many more people than before.

One cannot help but feel that Trump and his ilk suspect that their actions deserve rather an international investigation than peace prizes. Shortly after the announcement of this year's Nobel Peace laureate, the US government announced sweeping sanctions against the International Criminal Court in The Hague – the only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.

It is hard to say whether this was retaliation for the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Pillay, who previously served as a judge of this court, or a premeditated move. What is certain is that this is another example of a topsy-turvy world: sanctions meant to target perpetrators of such crimes are turned against those whose role is to investigate these crimes and prosecute their perpetrators.

In one of her first public statements after the Nobel Peace Prize was announced, Navi Pillay condemned the US sanctions against the International Criminal Court and called on the USA to return to the role of defender of human rights and international order.

The fight for international law and justice continues. It is a struggle over the shape of human coexistence across the entire planet: whether the protection of human rights and dignity of every person will prevail, or whether brutal mightier law will win. The Nobel Peace Prize for Navi Pillay is a symbolic drop on the side of good and an encouragement in dark times.

The author is a human rights advocate, doctor, and translator

We publish this text with the kind permission of the Czech online Deník Referendum