International Nuremberg Principles Academy

Pillay made history as the first non-white woman on South Africa's High Court.

defended Nelson Mandela during apartheid trials, Pelé is President of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty based in Madrid, Spain, President of the Advisory Council of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy, and the Chair of the Quasi-Judicial Inquiry into Detention in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Peterson said Pillay received notice of her Nobel Peace Prize award in courtrooms 600 inside the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg, Germany, a site famous worldwide for the post-World War Nuremberg trials.

This is the same courtroom where Justice Jackson gave the opening and closing statements and prosecuted Nazi war criminals, he said.

Part of it is that she's 85, of course, but part of it is, of course, also, as you say, that It is a rebuttal of the idea that her work was motivated by anything but an interest in the truth.

And when she was talking to her assembled colleagues, she said she's at the Nuremberg Academy right now with like, 85% of the human rights lawyers in the world at a conference, right? But when she was talking to her colleagues, she said, you know, the commendation and the reaction to the work of this committee has sometimes to be to congratulate me on my bravery, but that confuses me because telling the truth isn't bravery.

And I thought that was first an interesting response, a sort of illuminating response, right? That helps explain why the Nobel Committee might have thought it was an important thing to support at this moment.

but also because the citation itself awards her for, in general, her support of and her work on international law and building up the value of it.

Part of it is that she's 85, of course, but part of it is, of course, also, as you say, that It is a rebuttal of the idea that her work was motivated by anything but an interest in the truth.

And when she was, you know, talking to her assembled colleagues, she said she's at the Nuremberg Academy right now with like.

85% of the human rights lawyers in the world at a conference, right? But when she was talking to her colleagues, she said, you know, the commendation and the reaction to the work of this committee has sometimes to be to congratulate me on my bravery, but that confuses me because telling the truth isn't bravery.

And I thought that was first an interesting response, a sort of illuminating response, right, that helps explain why the Nobel Committee might have thought it was an important thing to support at this moment.

Well, they've chosen someone, as they said, of, of great courage and vision and, and determination who's been a real leader, uh, in, in, in the field of human rights and, and international justice.

Uh, uh, it was appropriate that, uh, it was an- announced when she was at the Nuremberg Academy this morning, where she was the founding president, and in the courtroom where just 80 years ago this month, uh, we had the first judgments against the Nazi leaders.

And, uh, it's, it's that commitment to, to end impunity and to hold powerful people to account that's, uh, that's motivated, uh, her throughout her life.

Uh, I came to know her 25 years ago in the courtroom.

Well, we caught up with Agnès Callamard, who was with her, a short while later, uh, for her reaction.

We are here together at a conference organized by the Nuremberg Academy.

We were actually in the Nuremberg Tribunal in the room where the, uh, judgment was delivered, uh, in 1945, so an incredibly symbolic location.

And Navi was trying to, uh, reach her daughter on the phone, and she was having some problems, so she left the room for a few minutes, and during those minutes, the news fell that she had been granted the, um, uh, the Nobel Peace Prize.