Nobel Peace Prize laureate Navi Pillay met The Hague mayor Jan van Zanen at the Old City Hall on Tuesday 20 October.
She stressed the importance of international justice and voiced support for the work of the international legal community.
The meeting came after the Nobel Committee named her the winner of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for her work on human rights, international law and the fight against impunity.
Van Zanen congratulated her on behalf of the city and praised her contribution to international justice and the protection of human rights.
Pillay was a judge at the International Criminal Court from 2003 to 2008 and helped develop international law from The Hague.
On a visit to the court last week she praised its staff and underlined the role of international justice in fighting impunity and protecting victims.
Born in 1941, Pillay is a South African jurist and human rights defender; Nelson Mandela appointed her the first Black woman judge on South Africa’s High Court in 1995.
She later served as president of the Rwanda Tribunal and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Since 2019 she has been an ad hoc judge at the International Court of Justice.
