Foreign Minister Wadephul on the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to Navanethem Pillay

Navi Pillay personifies the idea that peace is based on law. As a Judge and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, she shaped the jurisprudence on genocide through her pioneering judgements, in particular with regard to sexual violence as an element of genocide. From 2003 to 2008, she served as a Judge on the International Criminal Court in The Hague, in the nascent phase of an institution that to this day stands for ending impunity. She thereafter continued to pursue this goal on the political stage, as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Nobel Peace Prize honours her life’s work and simultaneously underscores the vital importance of international criminal justice.