The National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) extends its heartfelt congratulations to Dr. Navanethem “Navi” Pillay on being awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her efforts to promote peace and international law.
Born in South Africa to a family of Tamil descent, Dr. Pillay overcame apartheid-era discrimination and broke numerous barriers to become the first woman to establish a law practice in Natal Province in 1967. She later served as a judge of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (1995–2003), including as its President (1999–2003), where she contributed to establishing a landmark legal precedent recognizing that rape and sexual violence can constitute acts of genocide. From 2008 to 2014, she served as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a period during which the genocide committed by the Sri Lankan state against the Tamil people—the Tamil Genocide— reached its heights in Mullivaikkal in May 2009.
During her tenure as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Dr. Pillay raised serious concerns about the mass atrocities committed against the Tamil people and repeatedly called for an independent international investigation and accountability for those responsible. In August 2013, she visited the island of Sri Lanka, including the Tamil people’s historical, traditional and ancestral homeland in the North-East. Following the adoption of UN Human Rights Council Resolution 25/1 in March 2014, she established the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL), which commenced its work in July 2014.
Following the conclusion of her tenure in August 2014, Dr. Pillay continued to lend her voice in support of international accountability, justice and the fundamental rights of the Tamil people through media interviews, public lectures, international conferences, commemorative messages and joint appeals. These included interviews with Thanthi TV (2015) and Just Security (2021), her address at the N. Sivalingam Memorial Lecture held at York University in Toronto (2016), her criticism of Sri Lanka’s delays in delivering accountability (2019), and her participation in the “Loss of the Tamil Homeland” conference (2021), where she raised concerns about land dispossession and the right to self-determination. In her May 18, 2020 commemorative message, she honoured Tamil victims, acknowledged the Tamil people’s struggle for self-determination, and called for international action to secure their rights, justice and reparations. In February 2021, she also joined an international appeal calling for stronger accountability measures, including universal jurisdiction, consideration of the International Criminal Court, targeted sanctions and an international evidence-preservation mechanism.
As NCCT congratulates Dr. Pillay on this prestigious recognition, we respectfully urge her to continue lending her influential voice, international standing and moral authority to the Tamil people’s ongoing struggle.
We call upon her to use this moment of international recognition to amplify the Tamil people’s longstanding demands for international recognition of the Tamil Genocide, international accountability and meaningful remedial justice for the genocide committed by the Sri Lankan state against the Tamil people, and a permanent political solution grounded in their inalienable right to self-determination in their historical, traditional and ancestral homeland on the island of Sri Lanka.
We further appeal to her to call upon the United Nations and the international community to translate these demands into concrete and meaningful action, ensuring that impunity no longer prevails, accountability is no longer denied, justice is no longer delayed, and the fundamental rights and aspirations of the Eelam Tamil people are fully recognized and upheld.
Thank you,
National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT)