International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda

my first reaction was wow that is a deeply worthy person of that award and i think you know novella peace prize is one of your areas of interest right so yeah you know better than most that there's sometimes a little bit of like back and forth about was this really a person worthy of this prize but there is a category of winners that sort of i think unimpeachably the kind of person for whom this prize is made and i think she's among them someone who is extremely well known to people who certainly study international human rights, but beyond that, to people who advocate for international human rights at pretty much every level.

She is the former chair of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, someone who built her practice as a lawyer in apartheid South Africa.

Obviously, a time when building that kind of practice, establishing precedents against torture, things like that, was very difficult for a person who isn't white.

Helped establish sexual violence and rape as war crimes through the course of her work, became the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a position that she held with great respect as someone who was known for standing up to governments and really doing the work of advocacy for victims, and most recently for leading the report on rights violations in Gaza.

Someone who is extremely well-known to people who certainly study international human rights, but beyond that, to people who advocate for international human rights at pretty much every level.

She is the former chair of the International Tribunal for Rwanda, someone who built her practice as a lawyer in apartheid South Africa.

Obviously, a time when building that kind of practice, establishing precedents against torture, things like that was very difficult for a person who isn't white.

helped establish sexual violence and rape as war crimes through the course of her work, became the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, a position that she held with great respect, right, as someone who was known for standing up to governments and really doing the work of advocacy for victims, and most recently for leading the report on rights violations in Gaza.

She is currently a judge on the International Court of Justice and a former UN human rights commissioner.

She once served as a judge on the ICC and on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

She also recently led the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry that accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.

But her career began decades ago.

Alan Garrie, the Africa advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, told us earlier today from Johannesburg.

To see Navi Pillay, who has overcome all the odds of what the apartheid government meant for people who were previously disadvantaged, um, rising up and going up to the highest echelons of the legal industry, not just in South Africa, but in the world, and this really is, um, quite inspirational and should be inspirational to every person, um, that lives in the global south that, uh, might come from a community that is disadvantaged, that all is possible.

And to talk about Pillay's legacy and the responses to today's announcement, I'm joined by Stephen Rapp, ambassador at large of the State Department's Office of Global Criminal Justice under the Obama administration, and former prosecutor on the special court for Sierra Leone and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

He was also with Pillay this morning as she learned the news.

She is currently a judge on the International Court of Justice and a former UN human rights commissioner.

She once served as a judge on the ICC and on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

She also recently led the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry that accused Israel of genocide in Gaza.

But her career began decades ago.

To see Navi Pillay, who has overcome all the odds of what the apartheid government meant for people who were previously disadvantaged, um, rising up and going up to the highest echelons of the legal industry, not just in South Africa, but in the world.

And this really is, um, quite inspirational and should be inspirational to every person, um, that lives in the Global South, that, uh, might, uh, come from a community that is disadvantaged, that all is possible.

And to talk about Pillay's legacy and the responses to today's announcement, I'm joined by Stephen Rapp, ambassador at large of the State Department's Office of Global Criminal Justice under the Obama administration, and former prosecutor on the Special Court for Sierra Leone and International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

He was also with Pillay this morning as she learned the news.