Today former UN rights chief Navi Pillay was awarded the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize despite her complicity with genocide, turning a blind eye to abuses by China and other regimes, bias against Israel and defense of antisemitic remarks. In reaction, UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer issued this statement.
In addition, following are essential sources on Navi Pillay’s troubling record:
• Pillay’s Complicity With Genocide: A UN whistleblower accused Navi Pillay of being “complicit in genocide.” Emma Reilly, a human rights lawyer who worked for Navi Pillay, alleges that under her leadership the UN human rights office handed dissidents’ names to China—including Uyghurs.
• Report: Navi Pillay Turned Blind Eye to World’s Worst Abusers: In an major study published in 2011 while Navi Pillay served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, UN Watch examined Pillay’s record in the first two years she served as UN human rights chief. UN Watch found that Pillay turned a blind eye to most of the world’s worst abusers, being completely silent on abuses in Cuba, North Korea, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Belarus, Syria, and 27 other countries rated “Not Free” by Freedom House. During the first two years of her tenure, Pillay issued 21 statements on countries in the Middle East and North Africa. However, of these, 9 were on Israel, the only democracy in the region.
• Exposing UN Pillay Commission’s Targeting of Israel: In wake of the 11-day Hamas-Israel war of May 2021, the Palestinians and Pakistan, acting on behalf of the Islamic group of states, initiated an emergency session of the U.N. Human Rights Council and succeeded in creating yet another Commission of Inquiry targeting Israel and incentivizing Hamas. Whereas all past inquiries on Israel lasted for about a year, this one is perpetual—it goes on forever. UN rules require that commissioners be impartial. Pillay is the opposite. On repeated occasions, Pillay has publicly accused Israel of being an Apartheid state. She has even signed petitions lobbying governments to “Sanction apartheid Israel.” Navi Pillay was appointed to ensure a guilty verdict against Israel, to label it an Apartheid state with the UN’s imprimatur. In July 2025, Pillay resigned as Chair of the commission to avoid potential U.S. sanctions.
• Legal Brief on Pillay’s Bias, Call to Resign: In February 2022,UN Watch submitted a 30-page legal brief to the United Nations detailing how Navi Pillay violated UN rules by failing to disclose numerous of her prior statements that directly prejudge the matters before the inquiry, and calling on her to resign or recuse herself. As the brief demonstrated, Pillay lacked the impartiality required under UN guidelines due to a long history of public statements and actions pre-judging Israel.
• Nobel Hypocrisy—Pillay Boycotted Ceremony for Liu Xiaobo: When jailed human rights hero Liu Xiaobo was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, Foreign Policy reported that Pillay gave in to Chinese pressure and declined an invitation to attend the Oslo ceremony, falsely claiming that she needed to be at a low-level Geneva event — one to which she didn’t bother to show in other years. Then she added to the dissembling by saying she was never invited.
• 40 NGOs Urge U.N. Rights Chief to Attend Oslo Nobel Ceremony and Show Support for Chinese Dissident: An international coalition of 40 human rights and non-governmental organizations appealed today to U.N. rights chief Navi Pillay to reverse her decision to skip Friday’s Nobel award ceremony for imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. “We urge the High Commissioner to go to Oslo, attend the award ceremony, and convene a press conference that will spotlight the plight of the 1.3 billion Chinese citizens who are systematically denied the basic guarantees of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” said the statement.
• Ignored Iran: Ms. Pillay failed to issue any public statement in response to the well-documented violence against demonstrators in Iran following the June 2009 presidential elections. Her first comment appeared three months after initial reports and video evidence of government-backed paramilitary forces arbitrarily arresting, beating and killing protestors were released. Her welcome call on the Iranian government to “release those detained for peaceful protest, to investigate reports of their ill-treatment, and to ensure respect for human rights” was made only as part of her traditional opening speech at the UN Human Rights Council session in September 2009. She did not give a press conference and chose not to issue a dedicated statement on the matter.
• Endorses Arab-Islamic Assault on Israel: Contrary to the principled statements made by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon an her predecessor, Louise Arbour, Pillay has vocally supported the dictator-dominated UN Human Rights Council’s policy of maintaining a permanent agenda item against Israel — alone of all 193 member states — at every council session.
• Experts Scrutinized Pillay’s Biased Report: In 2022, as the United Nations in Geneva debated the Pillay Report — which turns a blind eye to Palestinian terrorism and embraces the Hamas narrative that Israel is the root cause of all conflict — UN Watch hosted an official UN Side Event, bringing together a panel of renowned experts to challenge the controversial new document. Speakers included Colonel Richard Kemp, Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Corn, Israeli Arab human rights activist Yoseph Haddad, human rights lawyer Anne Herzberg, South African attorney Olga Meshoe Washington, and former Member of Knesset Einat Wilf.
• UN Watch’s 2010 Letter to Pillay on Antisemitism and Double Standards: In an April 27, 2010 letter, UN Watch challenged Pillay’s defense of the Human Rights Council’s permanent agenda item targeting Israel and demanded the removal of antisemitic texts from the UN website. The letter documented how her office censored criticism of repressive regimes while publishing allegations that Israeli doctors stole Palestinian organs and that “Jews everywhere” were complicit in a Holocaust against Palestinians.
• Video: Why the UN’s Navi Pillay Commission Lacks Any Credibility
