No one is more deserving of this prize, and no moment could make clearer why the work Navi has led is so important and so necessary.

Her most recent work has continued that pursuit of justice for victims of genocide. In 2025, as chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, she found that Israel had committed genocidal acts against Palestinians in Gaza.

At the International Court of Justice, she sat as a judge in the case brought by The Gambia against Myanmar over the genocide of the Rohingya.

I have known and admired Navi for decades, as a lawyer, a judge and the UN’s human rights chief. As a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, she sat on the case that made history as the first-ever conviction for sexual violence as an act of genocide under international law.

It comes on the same day the Trump Administration has imposed sanctions on the International Criminal Court. Navi’s life’s work shows why international justice matters, above all to the victims and survivors of the gravest crimes, who so often have nowhere else to turn.

Many congratulations to Navi Pillay on being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, a fitting recognition of a lifetime devoted to human rights and justice around the world.

Attacks on hard-fought and hard-won gender rights gains are painful. But remember: Nobody organizes against a movement that isn't a threat to the old order.

It also matters for the women and girls who see themselves in positions of leadership and know that these spaces are open to them, too.

Women’s leadership matters because it changes whose voices are heard, whose priorities are considered, and who gets to shape the decisions that affect our societies and our future.

Namibia’s first woman president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, is a trailblazer for Namibia and for women across Africa. Under her leadership, women make up 57 percent of Namibia’s Cabinet—a significant reflection of her commitment to women’s participation and leadership in decision-making.

That requires investing in diplomacy alongside security, cooperation alongside deterrence, and political solutions alongside military ones.

Lasting stability cannot be imported. It must be built by the states, institutions, and societies that have the greatest stake in the region’s future. In other words, sustainable security cannot be built for the region without being built by the region.

From the genocide in Gaza, to the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran and Iran’s subsequent attacks on all its Gulf neighbors, to the conflict in Sudan and tensions in the Red Sea—broader questions of regional security are increasingly part of a single, interconnected political landscape.

I’m grateful to the governments of Norway and Kenya for convening a timely and important discussion on the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea. One of the things that strikes me about the current moment is how difficult it has become to separate crises that were once discussed independently.

When a city in Kenya learns from a city in Colombia, and a city in Europe learns from both, we build a network of trust that no single government can create, and that no single government can take away.

Multilateralism among states is under enormous strain. But beneath the surface, something else is happening: cooperation is now moving faster between cities than between countries.

To Governor Timamy, Diana Eggleston, Father Jorge Atilano González Candia, Juan Pablo Fonseca, and Felip Roca, thank you for your pioneering work. Continue to borrow boldly, share generously, and do not let anybody tell you that local is small.

This kind of peace is built in neighborhoods, in town halls, and in county offices by people who don’t get to leave when the cameras get switched off.

This is the kind of peace you measure by whether the market opens on a Tuesday morning, whether a mother can feel safe letting her children walk to school, whether a young person sees a police officer as a protector or a threat.