“Today we witness in real time how the promise of ‘never again’ is broken and tested in the eyes of the world,” said the Commission’s chair Judge Navi Pillay, who will receive the Sydney Peace Prize in November. “The ongoing genocide in Gaza is a moral outrage and a legal emergency.”

The UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, has determined Israel’s actions in Gaza a genocide. 

At a press conference in Geneva, the Commission members Judge Pillay and Chris Sidoti said that their extensive investigation has led to the conclusion that Israeli authorities and security forces “committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide”.

These acts are: killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

In an extraordinary moment of clarification, Chris Sidoti, noted that the fifth condition for genocide was not met – that is the transfer of children from one group to another. Rather, as the report noted, the genocidal intention of Israel has included the actual targeting of the children of Gaza as a way of ending any future for this community.

The Commission urged Israel and all countries to fulfil their obligations under international law “to end the genocide” and bring those responsible to account.

The Sydney Peace Foundation calls on the Australian Government to act on our international obligations: demand an immediate and permanent ceasefire in Gaza, restore UN-led humanitarian access, stop arms transfers and enabling inputs (like jet fuel and parts), investigate and sanction complicity. Nothing less will suffice.

“This report provides the clarity we need to courageously live up to our obligations under international law and act to stop the genocide. A failure to stand up for peace with justice in Palestine will ultimately be failure to stand up for peace with justice everywhere,” said Melanie Morrison, Director of the Sydney Peace Foundation.

Judge Navi Pillay will be in Sydney on 6 November to accept the Sydney Peace Prize at the Sydney Town Hall where she will be joined by Chris Sidoti and other experts in international justice.

The post Sydney Peace Foundation Statement on Findings of Genocide in Gaza appeared first on Sydney Peace Foundation.

The trophy’s design was inspired by raindrops, which start off small, but send ripples outwards which overlap with one another. This reflects the interconnectedness of our lives; no action is isolated, and even the smallest of ‘drops’ can be significant.

“The idea was layers and layers of different rings, connecting and overlapping,” Mr McGinness says. “[It represents] the effect one drop has on other people.” Like ripples, every step towards peace has the power to radiate outwards, impacting lives far beyond our own.

Movement is central to his art. “That’s what I love about steel. You can sort of suspend pieces in animation,” he says. In this work, it reminds us that peace is carried forward by action and motion, and that rather than being fixed, peace is always evolving and changing shape.

When he was commissioned to make the trophy, Mr McGinness wanted to create something unique: “I didn’t want to make just a stock piece,” he says. “I was actually very honoured to make this trophy. I think [peace] is probably the most important thing we have at the moment.”

With stainless steel as his medium, he invented his own formula for steel dye which he makes himself. The process of creating his work involves hours of designing, making sure the intricate pieces will stay together. He then puts his designs into a program to be read by a laser, which cuts them with precision.

“I think my wife put it best once. She said that I’m trying to combine tradition with technology,” he says.

He developed his expert steel-working skills through a 21-year career as a steel fabricator working in mine sites, towns, and remote communities. In 2008, he wondered whether he could put his steel-working skills to a different use. Taking inspiration from his parents, both of whom were painters, he began by creating works of Australian animals.

“I wanted to do something a little bit different, and came up with the idea of doing my own style of Aboriginal art in steel,” he says. “I couldn’t see anybody else doing that.”

More of Wayne McGinness’ work can be found on his company website, Aboriginal Steel Art.

By Molly Teskey, University of Sydney Intern

The post The Story Behind The New Peace Prize Trophy appeared first on Sydney Peace Foundation.

By Emeritus Professor Stuart Rees

In response to the announcement made by Melanie Morrison, director of the Sydney Peace Foundation and by Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney, patron of the Foundation, Navi Pillay said: “I am deeply honoured to accept Australia’s premier international prize for peace. The award is not mine alone. It belongs to all those who, across decades and continents, have stood up against injustice, often at great personal cost. It belongs to every survivor who found the courage to testify, to every human rights defender who remains steadfast in the face of threats of hostility and to every young person who dares to believe in a better, more just world.”

Commentators on the choice of Navi Pillay convey why her Sydney Peace Prize Lecture in the Sydney Town Hall, on Thursday 6 November, will show a life of courageous striving for the ideals of a common humanity, achievements which should give hope to generations and should be an inspiration to young people.

Professor Ben Saul, UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms while Countering Terrorism, said, “Navi Pillay is an icon of the international human rights movement, from confronting apartheid and promoting gender equality in South Africa to serving on the highest national and international courts.’

Lord Mayor Clover Moore explains, ‘The Sydney Peace Foundation honours judge Pillay for her unwavering commitment to human dignity and her profound impact on international human rights law.’

Evidence of such judgments is easily found in Pillay’s career. Born into a Tamil family living under South African apartheid, she became the first non-white woman to open a law practice in Natal Province and the first non-white woman judge of the High Court of South Africa.

Attaining those positions required gutsy determination to overcome discrimination and prejudice. She recalls, “As a child in South Africa, I could not enter parks or beaches reserved for whites.

“When I became a lawyer, no-one would hire me because of my gender, the colour of my skin and my economic status. I was told that white secretaries would not like to take dictation from a black woman.”

Pillay came to global attention in her early 30s when she won a legal case for recognising the rights and better living conditions for South African dissidents jailed under apartheid’s Terrorism Act. In a subsequent Robben Island case, she challenged the Terrorism Act and, for the first time, provided concrete evidence that prisoners had been tortured.

The centrality of human rights

Pillay’s career and the achievements which impressed a Sydney jury revolve around a commitment to a philosophy, language and practice to promote universal human rights. She explains, “There can be no lasting development in a given society without respect for all human rights, economic, social and cultural as well as civil and political rights.”

Armed with that philosophy, she has campaigned against violence against women and the need to abolish harmful practices, female genital mutilation and forced child marriages. In her hopes about the future, she imagines, “The world needs coalitions to create a more values-led, ethical globalisation, and, in particular, in a century when women can make a difference.”

Promotion of human rights as the means of attaining human dignity echoes a theme expressed by Pillay’s illustrious predecessor, Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and recipient of the Sydney Peace Prize in 2002. In Sydney, 23 years ago, Robinson was rewarded for “courage in standing up for the powerless against the interests of powerful individuals and institutions”.

She reminisced that in Ireland, human rights abuses had precipitated the conflicts and in the eventual process of peace through reconciliation and bridge-building, restoration of human rights became both goal and potential panacea. The Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement, signed on 10 April 1998, confirmed Robinson’s judgment.

Never shirking responsibility to adjudicate abuses of power

Exercising similar views and skills, from 1995-2003, Pillay became a judge and then president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, created to adjudicate people charged with the Rwandan genocide and other human rights violations. Other positions with worldwide responsibilities included her appointment as a judge in the International Criminal Court and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights 2008-2014.

An Australian audience in November will also be able to hear Pillay’s judgment about death and destruction in Gaza and on the West Bank. As chair of the UN Commission inquiring into war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Pillay has found that Israeli forces have committed gender-based violence with intent to humiliate and further subordinate the Palestinian community. UN experts have concluded that genocidal acts were evident in the destruction of maternity wards in Gaza, of reproductive health care facilities and embryos at a fertility clinic.

Chris Sidoti, the Australian lawyer colleague of Pillay’s on the Commission, concludes, “Sexual violence is now so widespread that it can only be considered systematic. It’s got beyond the level of random acts by rogue individuals.”

Pillay writes, “The evidence collected reveals a deplorable increase in sexual and gender-based violence to terrorise Palestinians and perpetrate a system of oppression that undermines their rights to self-determination.”

In this most recent, demanding judicial role, Pillay displays her life enhancing manner of exercising power, not from the top down but always with respect to evidence, to the needs and hopes of vulnerable usually powerless people.

She also has a reputation for kindness and warmth to all whom she encounters, whatever their status. Her courage in public life appears influenced largely by her legal knowledge and judicial skills, but to emphasise that dimension of her work would mean overlooking the tenets of humour, humility and a basic humanity, without which we are all lost.

That will no doubt be her message to Australians at an award dinner in Sydney on 5 November and at the Sydney Peace Prize Lecture. Both events could generate optimism, offering a sense of hope and each would show, in memorable ways, the style and content of visionary leadership.

This article was originally published in Pearls and Irritations on 5 June 2025.

The post A sign of hope: UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay to receive 2025 Sydney Peace Prize appeared first on Sydney Peace Foundation.

A former judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the International Criminal Court, and the first woman of colour to serve as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Judge Pillay has consistently championed international justice, truth-telling, and the protection of human dignity.

The Peace Prize jury selected Judge Pillay from a field of strong and venerable candidates “for a lifetime of advocating for fundamental human rights, peace with justice and the rights of women, all of which serves a clarion call in the face of a growing culture of impunity for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, towards accountability and responsibility”.

Judge Pillay was officially announced as the 2025 recipient of the Sydney Peace Prize at Sydney Town Hall on Thursday 22 May. The announcement ceremony was hosted by Sydney Peace Foundation patron and Lord Mayor of Sydney Clover Moore, and attended by distinguished guests from the international legal, diplomatic, and human rights communities. 

On accepting the prize, Judge Pillay said: “I am deeply honoured to accept Australia’s premier international prize for peace, awarded by the Sydney Peace Foundation. To be recognised for a lifetime’s work devoted to human rights, peace, justice and equality is both humbling and profoundly meaningful. This award is not mine alone. It belongs to all those who, across decades and continents, have stood up against injustice – often at great personal cost. It belongs to every survivor who found the courage to testify, to every human rights defender who remains steadfast in the face of threats and hostility, and to every young person who dares to believe in a better, more just world. We live in a world today still marred by war, poverty, racism and inequality. But we also live in a world where voices for justice are louder, more connected, and more courageous than ever before. The path ahead is neither easy nor short, but it is a path we must walk together – with integrity, with compassion, and with determination.”

City of Sydney Lord Mayor and Sydney Peace Foundation Patron Clover Moore said: “In a world where human rights are too often disregarded and justice delayed, Navi Pillay stands as a fearless defender of the rule of law. From challenging apartheid in South Africa to holding war criminals accountable on the global stage, her lifelong pursuit of justice reminds us that peace is not passive – it demands courage, integrity, and action. The Sydney Peace Prize honours her unwavering commitment to human dignity and her profound impact on international human rights law. As victims of wars across the globe continue face intolerable suffering, it is hard to remain optimistic and to believe that the rule of law will triumph. This award, and Navi’s extraordinary lifelong contribution to peace, remind us that we all have a responsibility to speak up about violations to human rights, corruption, repression, discrimination and inequality and that when we do, we can shape a better world.”

Professor Ben Saul from the University of Sydney Law School and United Nations Special Rapporteur said: “Navi Pillay is an icon of the international human rights movement, from confronting apartheid and promoting gender equality in South Africa, to serving on highest national and international courts, to leading the United Nations’ global human rights system. She has driven the law in progressive new directions, built lasting coalitions of human rights defenders, held the most powerful governments to account, and above all brought hope to victims.”

Melanie Morrison, Director of the Sydney Peace Foundation, said: “With the international rules-based order under threat, this year we acknowledge a beacon of integrity in global justice. Judge Navi Pillay has spent decades holding the most powerful to account and giving voice to the victims of atrocities – from apartheid South Africa and the Rwandan genocide, to ongoing human rights abuses in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Myanmar.” 

The Sydney Peace Prize will be formally awarded to Judge Pillay later in November 2025. She will travel to Australia to accept the Prize on Thursday 6 November at Sydney Town Hall.

About the Sydney Peace Prize

The Sydney Peace Prize is Australia’s international prize for peace, awarded by the Sydney Peace Foundation at the University of Sydney. The Prize recognises leading global voices that promote peace, justice and nonviolence. Laureates include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Professors Noam Chomsky and Joseph Stiglitz, Patrick Dodson, Naomi Klein, the Uluru Statement from the Heart and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

For over two decades, the Sydney Peace Prize has been awarded with the generous support of the City of Sydney, the University of Sydney and a broad coalition of donors and partners. Please join us on this journey for a fairer, more just world. For more information email peace.foundation@sydney.edu.au.

Media enquiries:

Melanie Morrison, Director, The Sydney Peace Foundation

E: melanie.morrison@sydney.edu.au

M: +61 (0) 401 996 451

University of Sydney Media Office

E: media.office@sydney.edu.au

M:  +61 2 8627 0246 (diverts to mobile)

The post International jurist Navi Pillay to receive 2025 Sydney Peace Prize appeared first on Sydney Peace Foundation.