The Nobel Peace Prize is the award handed out every October in Oslo, Norway, for work toward peace. This morning it went to Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, an 85-year-old South African lawyer, honored for what the committee called a lifetime of work for peace and international law.
Pillay’s story starts under apartheid. Born in Durban in 1941 to a Tamil family, she became the first woman of color to open a law practice in her home province, defending anti-apartheid activists. In 1973 she sued the government and won political prisoners on Robben Island, including Nelson Mandela, the right to legal representation.
After apartheid ended she became a High Court judge, then a judge on the Rwanda tribunal, where she presided over the landmark case that established rape and sexual assault as acts of genocide. She later served on the International Criminal Court and as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014.
She was at a human rights lawyers conference in Nuremberg, Germany when the news broke, and got a long ovation from her colleagues. When the applause died down she joked, “If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump.” The win means President Donald Trump, who campaigned hard for the prize last year and has long said he deserves it, was denied again.