The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded its 2026 Peace Prize on Friday to Navi Pillay, the former United Nations human rights chief accused by a UN whistleblower of exposing Chinese dissidents and their families to persecution. She has also been criticized for defending antisemitic remarks.
The committee honored the 85-year-old South African jurist for advancing peace and international law. Critics, however, cited a record they say includes shielding dictatorships, promoting false genocide allegations against Israel, and endangering the people her office was supposed to protect.
Emma Reilly, a human rights lawyer who worked under Pillay, accused the Nobel laureate of being “quite literally complicit in the Uyghur genocide.”
According to Reilly, the UN human rights office handed dissidents’ names to China under Pillay’s leadership, despite warnings about the danger to them and their relatives. “Navi Pillay oversaw the communication of names of over 50 dissidents to China. Families of the dissidents testified in court,” Reilly said.
“They testified, under oath, to their family members being intimidated, arbitrarily detained, tortured, disappeared, and even killed in concentration camps.”
Reilly also alleged that employees involved in transmitting the names were rewarded while she faced retaliation. “All staffers [of Pillay] who directly handed over names were promoted... I was fired for speaking up.”
UN Watch cited its longstanding criticism of Pillay’s priorities. Its 2011 study examined statements published on the UN website between September 2008 and June 2010 and reported that she had voiced no concern about human rights abuses in 34 countries classified as “Not Free.”
The organization found that nine of her 21 statements concerning the Middle East and North Africa focused on Israel. It also said she waited three months to comment on Iran’s violent crackdown following the June 2009 presidential election.
Pillay’s own history with the Nobel Prize drew renewed attention. In 2010, she declined to attend the ceremony honoring imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, prompting a coalition of 40 organizations to urge her to reverse the decision.
“In 2010, the Nobel committee honored Liu Xiaobo for standing up to China’s dictatorship. Pillay refused to attend his ceremony. Now the committee gives her the same prize,” UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said Friday. “What message does that send to Chinese dissidents risking their lives for freedom?”
Pillay also faced criticism for defending fellow UN commissioner Miloon Kothari after he invoked a “Jewish lobby” in a 2022 interview. She later chaired the UN commission that accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza in September 2025. Israel rejected the commission’s findings.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office condemned the Nobel decision Friday. “The Nobel Prize committee has lost its moral compass. It has awarded its highest honor to a bigot who built her career around inventing and propagating blood libels against the one and only Jewish state,” the statement said.
The statement accused ICC prosecutor Karim Khan of using Pillay’s work to construct a false case against Israel and alleged that he did so to deflect sexual misconduct accusations against him. “Pillay supplied the lies. Khan weaponized them,” it said.
President Donald Trump also condemned the selection, saying the Nobel Committee “shamed itself beyond repair and demeaned the once great Nobel Peace Prize by giving it to the UN’s Navi Pillay.”
“Pillay is an unabashed hater of America and Israel. In her position she celebrated terrorists and rewarded Hamas,” Trump said. “She conducted a phony ‘investigation’ claiming to find that Israel committed genocide and urging prosecution.”
Trump said Pillay “has never done a thing to foster peace” and criticized the committee’s previous decision to honor Yasser Arafat. He contrasted the award with his own administration’s work on the Abraham Accords, securing the return of hostages and pursuing an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. “These are the kinds of things the Nobel Peace Prize was intended to recognize and reward!!!” Trump said.
The award came the same day Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions against the International Criminal Court, where Pillay previously served as a judge. Rubio said the United States would restrict transactions with the institution to cut off its resources.
“Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC,” Rubio said.
The committee honored the 85-year-old South African jurist for advancing peace and international law. Critics, however, cited a record they say includes shielding dictatorships, promoting false genocide allegations against Israel, and endangering the people her office was supposed to protect.
Emma Reilly, a human rights lawyer who worked under Pillay, accused the Nobel laureate of being “quite literally complicit in the Uyghur genocide.”
According to Reilly, the UN human rights office handed dissidents’ names to China under Pillay’s leadership, despite warnings about the danger to them and their relatives. “Navi Pillay oversaw the communication of names of over 50 dissidents to China. Families of the dissidents testified in court,” Reilly said.
“They testified, under oath, to their family members being intimidated, arbitrarily detained, tortured, disappeared, and even killed in concentration camps.”
Reilly also alleged that employees involved in transmitting the names were rewarded while she faced retaliation. “All staffers [of Pillay] who directly handed over names were promoted... I was fired for speaking up.”
UN Watch cited its longstanding criticism of Pillay’s priorities. Its 2011 study examined statements published on the UN website between September 2008 and June 2010 and reported that she had voiced no concern about human rights abuses in 34 countries classified as “Not Free.”
The organization found that nine of her 21 statements concerning the Middle East and North Africa focused on Israel. It also said she waited three months to comment on Iran’s violent crackdown following the June 2009 presidential election.
Pillay’s own history with the Nobel Prize drew renewed attention. In 2010, she declined to attend the ceremony honoring imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, prompting a coalition of 40 organizations to urge her to reverse the decision.
“In 2010, the Nobel committee honored Liu Xiaobo for standing up to China’s dictatorship. Pillay refused to attend his ceremony. Now the committee gives her the same prize,” UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer said Friday. “What message does that send to Chinese dissidents risking their lives for freedom?”
Pillay also faced criticism for defending fellow UN commissioner Miloon Kothari after he invoked a “Jewish lobby” in a 2022 interview. She later chaired the UN commission that accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza in September 2025. Israel rejected the commission’s findings.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office condemned the Nobel decision Friday. “The Nobel Prize committee has lost its moral compass. It has awarded its highest honor to a bigot who built her career around inventing and propagating blood libels against the one and only Jewish state,” the statement said.
The statement accused ICC prosecutor Karim Khan of using Pillay’s work to construct a false case against Israel and alleged that he did so to deflect sexual misconduct accusations against him. “Pillay supplied the lies. Khan weaponized them,” it said.
President Donald Trump also condemned the selection, saying the Nobel Committee “shamed itself beyond repair and demeaned the once great Nobel Peace Prize by giving it to the UN’s Navi Pillay.”
“Pillay is an unabashed hater of America and Israel. In her position she celebrated terrorists and rewarded Hamas,” Trump said. “She conducted a phony ‘investigation’ claiming to find that Israel committed genocide and urging prosecution.”
Trump said Pillay “has never done a thing to foster peace” and criticized the committee’s previous decision to honor Yasser Arafat. He contrasted the award with his own administration’s work on the Abraham Accords, securing the return of hostages and pursuing an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. “These are the kinds of things the Nobel Peace Prize was intended to recognize and reward!!!” Trump said.
The award came the same day Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions against the International Criminal Court, where Pillay previously served as a judge. Rubio said the United States would restrict transactions with the institution to cut off its resources.
“Either the ICC will end its threats, or we will end the ICC,” Rubio said.
