Even under the thumb of apartheid, Navanethem "Navi" Pillay's school teacher saw potential in the young student, prompting her family to crowdfund for her university application.
A year after graduating, she became the first woman in her eastern South African province to open a law practice.
Dr Pillay was the first non-white woman to be appointed to South Africa's High Court, before becoming a judge on the International Criminal Court and later the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In her first Australian interview since receiving the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize last week, Dr Pillay reflected on growing up in a segregated South Africa, her trailblazing career in law, and Trump's "pathetic" criticisms of her.
On growing up under apartheid
Dr Pillay was born on September 23, 1941, in southern Durban, a coastal city in eastern South Africa.
Apartheid was formally codified as government policy seven years later, but Black people had been subject to racial segregation for much longer.
The community Dr Pillay and her six siblings grew up in was designated for people of Indian descent and was constantly under the threat of being declared a white area, which would have meant forced removal.
She said every Christmas her father, who was a bus driver, would drive the family "along the esplanade so we could see the Christmas trees from afar".
"There's no way you could stop and walk along that street," she said.
"You can't go to the beaches, they were all designated for whites only. You couldn't go to the park or use the swings.
"I don't think people understand, even I didn't, what an oppressive atmosphere we grew up in."
Dr Pillay also recalled a time when she was nine or 10 years old and wrote an essay at school about justice.
"I wrote of two similar cases where the white man got off, but they sentenced the black man to life imprisonment," she said.
"I don't know where I got that [from] … nobody discussed [apartheid] in class.
"We had no newspapers at home. We had no radio, obviously no television.
"So it must have been from the very atmosphere of awareness."
On university and her early days in law
Like her schooling, Dr Pillay was only allowed to attend non-white sections of university.
She said her law classes were held in a "potato warehouse".
"I was with students who were all involved in some way or another with protest activities and marches on the streets," she said.
Navi Pillay during her studies at Havard. (Supplied: Nobel Prize/Facebook)
"I didn't actually join them, but that's that atmosphere of vibrant awareness of what apartheid is doing to us.
"There was one protest outside our university and the police actually shot at the students."
In 1965, she graduated from the University of Natal with a Bachelor of Laws, before going on to other study, including at Harvard.
Two years after graduating, she opened her own law practice in Natal, becoming the first woman in the province to do so.
On criticisms from Donald Trump
The US president has been vocal about his belief he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, and was this year nominated by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He called the Nobel committee's decision this year "disgraceful and embarrassing", saying the prize "has been forever discredited by a handful of radical ideologues who are anti-democracy".
An illustration of Navi Pillay after the announcement of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo. (NTB/Javad Parsa/via Reuters)
"I don't think I want to be involved in this one-to-one tug of war, but I can't resist commenting that it is such pathetic behaviour to be asking for an award," Dr Pillay said of Trump's criticisms.
"He said things like, 'Some woman got it and nobody knows her.'
"I have 60 years of working in the human rights and justice fields. So it's hardly a record to balance with a politician who's asking for the award."
On sanctions against the ICC
Just hours after Dr Pillay received the prize, the US announced it would impose sanctions on the International Criminal Court.
Shortly after, Britain, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and the Netherlands issued a joint statement condemning the sanctions, which will freeze the court's assets in the US, as well as block financial transactions and IT agreements the ICC has with US companies.
Australia later added its name to the statement. Dr Pillay said the member states' opposition to the sanctions was "significant".
"We struggle all our lives for states to be seen to be acting collectively. They did so immediately," she said.
"The sanctions are unlawful. They are cruel. It affects everyone."
On Palestine and the Gaza war
From 2021 to 2025, Dr Pillay was the chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Occupied Palestinian Territory, which determined last year Israel had committed genocide in the Gaza war.
Israel rejected the report, labelling it "distorted and false".
While the report was the most significant finding by an official body to date, it is not legally binding and does not compel any government to impose sanctions.
The report concluded that Israel has deliberately inflicted conditions that would bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians. (Reuters: Ebrahim Hajjaj)
Reflecting on what legal weight the finding held, Dr Pillay said the commission remained "the authoritative body on this until a court of law draws its own conclusion and judgment".
"We were given the mandate by member states in the Human Rights Council not only to investigate, find the evidence, but to name the crimes and the individuals," Dr Pillay said.
"What's different about this genocide is it's occurring in real time. So much of the evidence we gathered was seen by the public on television.
"There was a demand and an expectation for answers and for action.
"Every state in the world is obliged to prevent genocide … I reasoned then that because we had a mandate and we could trace, connect these dots, that we can proceed to make findings."
On what she still wants to achieve
Receiving the world's most prestigious honour at 85 years old, Dr Pillay joked that she could now sleep in every morning.
Her honest answer, though, was that there was more work to be done.
"I'll stop when human rights violations stop," she said.
"There's a role to play for me … now I have this unexpected extra recognition, which comes with great power.
"I think I will have to slow down physically, but as long as I can move, I will continue to watch out for the rights of everyone and particularly for justice."
Dr Pillay said her award puts the "focus on justice, international justice [and] the rule of law", which she said were at risk in today's world.