| ▲ | Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 to Navanethem "NAVI" Pillay(nobelprize.org) |
| 178 points by Anon84 3 hours ago | 63 comments |
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| ▲ | killingtime74 3 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| I was just checking which were the top guesses on polymarket before the announcement and this winner was not even a choice on there. At least we know there's no insider trading at the Nobel foundation. |
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| ▲ | JensRantil 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Yay, congrats Navi! Thanks for contributing to international law! |
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| ▲ | onepunchedman 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Great to see that they're not afraid to stand up to the rising authoritarianism |
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| ▲ | fifilura 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | The committee is independent from politics although some dictators may at times misunderstand that. | | |
| ▲ | belorn 36 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | Where does it say that the Norwegian Nobel Committee is independent from politics? As stated on their webpage, "As far as possible, the composition of the Committee is to reflect the relative strengths of the political parties in the Storting." - https://www.nobelpeaceprize.org/nobel-committee/ It is independent to the sitting Norwegian government, as members can't have current seats both in the committee and Storting, but several committee do represent the political parties in Norway. Currently the committee is made from former Leader of the Centre Party, a foreign policy scholar and writer, former Conservative Party cabinet member that was the Minister of Education and Research, a Political scientist and Chief Executive Officer of Utøya AS, and last the former Labour Party Foreign Affairs Secretary. | |
| ▲ | pczy 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I find it hard to see how the committee can be genuinely independent of politics when its members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. | | |
| ▲ | originalvichy 27 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Norway is one of the few countries in the world that has ”fuck you” money and a functioning representative electoral system. If the parliament appoints the committee, I find it politically suicidal for any representative to dare to directly interfere with the commissions deliberation and choices. There’s hardly anything positive to gain from it for a representative. | | |
| ▲ | chewchewchew 4 minutes ago | parent [-] | | how does this imply that they can be disconnected from politics, some may argue on the contrary due to what you just stated. |
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| ▲ | baggachipz 20 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | There's always FIFA to give out a prize if necessary. | |
| ▲ | ks2048 37 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | "independent from politics" seems to have a few different meanings. One is inherently bad and another is not necessarily bad. Of course the committee is political and the entire nature of the award is political. | |
| ▲ | kzrdude 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | They have really not made the impression that they are independent of politics, all laureates taken together. But if they improve I'm all for it. | | |
| ▲ | fifilura 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | They have opinions and moral values. And a lot of times they coincide with western democracy ideals. Or - like today - with rules based global world order. | | |
| ▲ | impossiblefork an hour ago | parent [-] | | You remember Machado though... Peace prize for someone who was literally arguing for subjecting her own country to an invasion and foreign occupation. I remember how Swedish state television suddenly flipped very after that, and started cuddling Cuban exiles who wanted the same there. I think this whole thing was certainly coordinated somehow, behind the scenes in order to attempt to legitmize a future US invasion of Venezuela and their general conduct in the Carribean and South America /Pacific. Things like this happened during expulsion of the Karabach-Armenians too. Then SVT went out and said that "Armenian separatists [had] agreed to leave Azerbaijan", and they left out the artillery bombardement, the deaths by starvation and the ICJ judgement against Azerbaijan's closure of the Lachine corridor, even though such a judgement by an organization like the ICJ would otherwise by first-page news. So while I can't be sure that there's some NATO-internal press office coordinating how planned future military activity by members is to be presented in the media, it seems that Turkey could achieve that, and that the US could achieve that. | | |
| ▲ | fifilura an hour ago | parent [-] | | Yeah, I guess they act independently from international courts. | | |
| ▲ | impossiblefork an hour ago | parent [-] | | How do you mean, and who? If you mean Swedish state television, what I meant was that any such major judgement by a UN court like the ICJ, would be front page news. Remember, this stuff was subject to long and incredibly annoying thing in the Security Council as well, and SVT ignored that too. It was the biggest thing that happened that whole year, basically and the entire coverage by SVT were those words I quoted in the comment before this, that "Armenian separatists have agreed to leave Azerbaijan". | | |
| ▲ | fifilura 38 minutes ago | parent [-] | | The Norwegian nobel prize committee. (Your post was heavily edited, if you think i missed some point.) | | |
| ▲ | impossiblefork 16 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Yeah, I can be slow in getting them finished. But at that point I can't have mentioned the ICJ stuff, can I? Hmm. Oh well. I get what I get for my editing. |
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| ▲ | yostrovs 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | The committee is selected by the Norwegian parliament, a political body. | | |
| ▲ | p-e-w 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | And there is a long history of allegations of additional political influence beyond that. |
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| ▲ | rob74 7 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | I mean, if the really gave the prize to Trump, they would completely destroy their credibility. That's better left to FIFA (not that FIFA had a lot of credibility before creating a peace prize to award it to Trump). |
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| ▲ | nxobject 8 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I'll be amused to see how the administration reacts. Perhaps we'll end up having the Trump Prizes. |
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| ▲ | netsharc 5 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Satire is mostly dead in this world of clownocracy, but someone should prank-call FIFA and ask them who's the winner of this year's FIFA Peace Prize... |
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| ▲ | vintagedave 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Also here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50017966 |
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| ▲ | josu 31 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > in 2019 she became an ad hoc judge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case in which Myanmar stands accused of genocide. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2026/pillay/facts/ I wonder who committed said genocide... oh, yeah, the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1991/kyi/facts/ |
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| ▲ | braiamp 12 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Committee can’t predict the future man, they only had her actions before 1991. Her showing up at the ICJ was probably a move to appease the military and it didn’t work, they ousted her in 2021 anyway. If you want change argue for awarding it posthumously or that the prize is for worthy actions already done, in which case there are easier targets like Kissinger |
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| ▲ | khalic 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| A clear FU to the Cheeto, love it |
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| ▲ | gyanchawdhary an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The oberturies posted on HN are more worthy of Noble than Noble's being handed out to non sceince folk because of politics .. at this point, its become more like Forbes .. |
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| ▲ | ks2048 an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | > "At this point" Of the original 5 Nobel prize categories, 2 were always not about science. | | |
| ▲ | fuzzfactor 11 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | That's what I was thinking. I'm a lifelong scientist but it should be obvious that the Peace Prize is supposed to be bigger than science. | |
| ▲ | gyanchawdhary 10 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | yes ... but who is she? and what has she actually done? for comparison, i knew nothing about margaret hamilton or bill draper before reading their obituaries on HN this month. it literally took a few sentences to understand what legends they were .. not just in their respective domains, but in terms of their broader impact on humanity .. with this navi lady, i've scrolled through two pages of text and still don't have a clear picture of what she actually DID to deserve whatever greatness the Nobel seems to bestow upon her. i mean, if you can't even explain to a layman, in plain english, what someone actually DID to earn a prize of this stature .. without resorting to a laundry list of causes and buzzwords ... then what exactly are we rewarding here ? Her kindness ? Decency ? Morality ? wtf |
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| ▲ | Reubachi 23 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | I suggest looking at the original Nobel* awards before deriding "modern politics" as a boogyman |
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| ▲ | alexnewman an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I obviously think my wife should have won, but at least she won the greatest award, an aaron sorkin movie |
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| ▲ | nervai 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Reminder that the US administration is on a campaign to dismantle the ICC for echoing similar findings to this Nobel Prize winner in her role at UNHRC [1]. I'm extremely grateful to, and humbled by, these people continuing their brave work knowing they will face the full wrath of the US and Israel govs and their campaigns to dismantle accountability for the worst crimes. [1] https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/20... |
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| ▲ | vincnetas 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | "The ICC poses an intolerable threat to U.S. sovereignty – it claims the authority to prosecute and even imprison American servicemen and officials operating on behalf of America’s national interest. Americans never signed up for this, and all American presidents since the ICC’s ratification have maintained that the ICC does not have jurisdiction over Americans. The ICC previously opened an investigation into U.S. servicemen and intelligence officers and has since refused to close these cases." Yeah, but somehow if i do some illegal shit according to USA they have no problem arresting me when i come visit (or if they really eager they come to visit me). But how dare you tell us what we can do or cant do INTOLERABLE. | | |
| ▲ | Telemakhos 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | Yes, that’s what sovereignty means: a sovereign state governs itself and is not governed by others. A sovereign state can agree to abide by certain rules or submit some disputes to another arbiter, but it does so consensually by treaty. The US never ratified a treaty establishing the authority of the ICC, so it has not consented to that diminution of sovereignty. You as an individual are not sovereign, and when you come to the land over which the US is sovereign, you are subject to US law. | | |
| ▲ | freehorse an hour ago | parent | next [-] | | > You as an individual are not sovereign, and when you come to the land over which the US is sovereign, you are subject to US law. And if an american, whom ICC have found guilty on crimes, visits a country which upholds ICC rulings they should be arrested, no? Nobody talked about kidnapping people in the US or doing anything similar. In contrast, the US is in a habit on (among others) 1. kidnapping 2. bombing 3. otherwise assassinating 4. sanctioning 5. demanding extradition (the only actual "legal" part) foreign citizens that they do not like. We can also say that no other, non american citizen has actually agreed to these practices either, nor to US authority to be the world serif. So these arguments more like read like monopoly of global violence/authority than "sovereignty". | |
| ▲ | cycomanic 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The main part of the argument is that the US is very happy to apply their laws to foreign citizens for things they have done on foreign soil and are also happy to legally or illegally extract those citizens from the foreign states. That does in fact directly violate those other states sovereignty. | | | |
| ▲ | yread 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Conversely, American individuals are also not sovereign so when they come to a sovereign land where they are sought (by the state or its partners through treaties) for crimes, they are subject to the the state's laws and treaties. | |
| ▲ | brookst 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | This would more persuasive if the US didn’t have a long history of prosecuting, even kidnapping, foreign nationals on foreign soil for violations of US law. | |
| ▲ | Ozzie_osman an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > The US never ratified a treaty establishing the authority of the ICC, so it has not consented to that diminution of sovereignty. True, they could ignore the ICC, but they shouldn't go around sanctioning and punishing and threatening its judges. | |
| ▲ | tgv an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | > a sovereign state governs itself and is not governed by others Hence, if anyone commits a crime in another country, they fall under the jurisdiction of that country. So while the US doesn't have to recognize the ICC, listen to it, or follow its verdicts, other countries are free to do so. But now the US is threatening the judges of the ICC, which is hypocritical to say the least. It's more of a mafia thing, really. Not surprising, given Trump's background. | |
| ▲ | vincnetas 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | So it should be no surprise to USA that sovereign countries that abide to ICC rulings take actions against individual USA citizens. | | |
| ▲ | pirate787 an hour ago | parent [-] | | This isn't true, the US considers prosecution by the ICC as an act of war. |
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| ▲ | Vaslo 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Yes because the only law that the US needs to recognize is its own. | | |
| ▲ | khalic 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Oh but others must recognize America's laws right? Oh the hypocrisy | | |
| ▲ | Vaslo an hour ago | parent [-] | | It’s not hypocrisy. Don’t follow them. But when your interests conflict with ours, then we will exert our influence. | | |
| ▲ | bad_haircut72 16 minutes ago | parent | next [-] | | As Americas star continues to wane over the coming decades y'all are really going to regret this "might makes right" stance. | |
| ▲ | tchalla 38 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I wish more people understand this very clearly instead of hiding behind "democratic values" and other moral lectures. | |
| ▲ | ks2048 41 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Sometimes self-interest leads to cooperation. | |
| ▲ | khalic an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | No you will kidnap people, have them killed, silenced, accounts freeze, etc. It's not merely "exercising influence", it's coercion. It's exactly the case here, it's the US's prerogative not to follow the ICCs judgements, it's none of your fkn business what laws other countries have. If a US citizen is in another territory, it's that territory's law that count. Your government also routinely ignores its own laws and judgements. Hypocrisy at all the levels, and lying to try to still have the moral high ground. | |
| ▲ | mda 41 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | Typical American hubris. |
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| ▲ | enaaem 30 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The US is a colony of Israel. | |
| ▲ | dudefeliciano 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | doing a pretty shit job at that too tbh |
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| ▲ | myth_drannon 5 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Pillay is complicit in China's genocide of Uyghurs. What a shame.
Not to mention she is antisemite rambling about the "Jewish lobby".
But anyways, not surprised at all. Dark times indeed. |
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| ▲ | ZiiS 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| The problem is you have to be noteworthy enough to be considered; and are going to be in close proximity of atrocities (hopefully trying to prevent them). Realistically this means a higher percentage of laureate are now generally accepted to have some complicity in atrocities then the percentage of normal people. |
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| ▲ | brookst 2 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Which maybe is ok? It’s not a “most perfect person” prize, it’s a “did the most to advance peace” prize. It makes people uncomfortable, but maybe someone who reduces net suffering despite being responsible for some suffering is doing more than normal people who do no harm, but do no good? | | |
| ▲ | billnad 16 minutes ago | parent [-] | | Yikes, never looked at it that way. I always think of the people making things better, or that move the needle more worldwide but you are very right, the Nobel Prize is going to be awarded to someone who has been in war zones where there are tough decisions to be made |
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| ▲ | andrelaszlo 29 minutes ago | parent | prev [-] | | The problem with the Peace Prize in general, or this time? It's not entirely clear to me what you're trying to say. |
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