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Navi Pillay, a former ICC judge who oversaw a UN report that concluded that Israel committed genocide in Gaza, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday "for her efforts to promote peace and international law".
This year's Nobel Peace Prize underlined the importance of maintaining an organised international order, the committee said in its citation.
"The system of international law is under tremendous pressure, and its institutions are under attack," it said.
"We see a shift towards power politics at the expense of legal frameworks and global respect for law and justice. Whenever might overtakes right, it undermines stability, trust and peaceful co-existence."
Born in Durban, in South Africa's Natal province, in a family of Indian Tamil origin, Navi Pillay, 85, has been a judge on several international courts, including the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Reuters reported.
She was also chair of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory that concluded last year that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Israel dismissed the report as "scandalous".
She has also served as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
In 1967 she became the first woman to start a law practice in Natal and the first non-white woman to serve on South Africa's High Court, according to Reuters.
Pillay is currently a judge on the International Court of Justice in the case where Myanmar stands accused of genocide, according to the BBC.