The 2026 Olof Palme Prize will be awarded to South African international law lawyers John Dugard and Navanethem (Navi) Pillay for their outstanding contribution to the defense of fundamental human rights. At a time when states violate international law by committing crimes against humanity resulting in death, starvation and threats to human life and dignity, those who act against these crimes deserve to be honored. Especially when those like Dugard and Pillay have systematically collected the evidence and done so with such precision that the foundation has been laid for those responsible to be identified and brought to justice.
Professor John Dugard has a lifelong commitment to international law. First in South Africa through research, activism and litigation directed against the apartheid system. Later in Palestine, as the UN Rapporteur on human rights in Palestine, he contributed his profound insights to promoting respect for international law in one of the world’s most difficult, ongoing conflicts. He has also been a member of the UN International Law Commission (ILC). As a member of the team of international law lawyers that drafted South Africa’s 2023 submission to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on alleged genocide against the State of Israel, he has vigorously defended international law as a cornerstone of our world order.
Justice Navi Pillay stands out as one of the foremost advocates of the legal defence of human rights today. This has been demonstrated in her work at the national level in her native South Africa, first as a lawyer during apartheid and then as a member of the Supreme Court. Her work at the international level is even more extensive. For example, she was a judge and president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), a judge of the International Criminal Court (ICC), the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and most recently as president of the UN Independent International Commission on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, which concluded that genocide had been committed. She is now serving as an ad hoc judge at the ICJ in the case Gambia v. Myanmar.
Read Stefan Löfvens welcome speech from the prize ceremony
