Former UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has taken a swipe at Donald Trump after winning the Nobel Peace Prize 2026, joking that she would offer to share it with him.

The South African judge and legal expert was awarded the prize for being “instrumental in ensuring war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted”, according to Nobel committee chair Jørgen Watne Frydnes.

He said it came at a time when ”the system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack”.

Trump has long coveted the prize and made no secret of his aspiration to win it. He has previously heaped pressure on the committee to give him the prestigious accolade.

“I’ve done stuff that nobody else has ever done. I’m not bragging, I’m just telling you the facts,” the president told reporters on Wednesday. “No president has probably ever settled any wars. I settled eight wars.”

At the Nuremberg Court where Pillay was attending an academic and legal conference, she addressed attendees and made a joke at Trump’s expense, in footage shared by Amnesty International’s secretary general, Agnes Callamard.

Walking into a room of applause, she said: “If you clap a little bit more, I may share this prize with Trump.”

The White House reacted furiously to President Trump’s snub last year and accused the committee of placing “politics over peace” when the prize was awarded to Venezuela‘s Maria Corina Machado, a democracy and peace activist who challenged Venezuela’s autocratic government.

She later symbolically handed her prize to Mr Trump as a “recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom”.

This year, the Nobel committee appeared to be aware of the pressure surrounding the announcement and said: “We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice. Whenever might overtakes right, it undermines stability, trust and peaceful coexistence.

“In awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wants to remind the world that the rule of law, national and international, underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conflicts non-violently. Peace requires justice.”

Mr Frydnes said: “This is a message that international law and its institutions are the cornerstone of a more peaceful world. So of course, we hope that this prize also will strengthen the institutions, the individuals, not only Navi Pillay, but particularly her.”

Ms Pillay’s work has included defending Nelson Mandela and others who stood up against apartheid. She also served as a judge and presided over watershed criminal cases for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

She also chaired the independent UN commission that concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, a claim that Israel denies.