“At a time when the number of wars and conflicts is rising, and when judges and institutions of international law are under political attack, the Nobel committee wishes to issue a reminder that the ability to resolve conflicts without force or violence is dependent on the international rule of law.
“An international legal system in which war criminals are held to account and the victims of abuse see justice served is a precondition for a peaceful world.”
Pillay, who served as the High Commissioner for Human Rights between 2008 and 2014, has faced numerous claims of impartiality on Israel.
Between the UNHRC’s inception in 2006 through to 2015, the body delivered 61 resolutions against Israel compared to 55 for the rest of the world combined.
Pillay played a controversial role in the 2009 Durban Review Conference, known as Durban II, which was boycotted by several Western countries amid concerns about its treatment of Israel and antisemitism.
The conference gave Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a platform to deliver a speech widely condemned as antisemitic. When Jewish organisations protested, Pillay dismissed them as “lobby groups focused on single issues”.
In 2014, over 100 members of US Congress signed a letter to Pillay decrying the UNHRC’s bias against Israel under her leadership, saying the council “simply cannot be taken seriously as a human rights organisation” while it was probing Israel but not Hamas.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (C) delivers his speech in front of United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights, in front of Navi Pillay (L) and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, 2009 (Credit: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images
She signed a petition in 2020 that called for sanctions against Israel, a country she has described as an “apartheid state”.
The following year, weeks after the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Hamas, she signed a letter to US President Joe Biden accusing Israel of provoking the fighting through “aggressive actions” and practising “discrimination and systemic oppression”.
Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, called for Pillay to resign from the UN commission in 2022, comparing her appointment to asking “a vegetarian to review a steakhouse”.
Following the 2021 Israel-Palestine crisis, Pillay chaired the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, which in 2025 accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.
Pillay said the commission had found “an intent to destroy the Palestinians in Gaza through acts that meet the criteria set forth in the Genocide Convention”.
Israel has vehemently rejected the accusation, maintaining that its military campaign is against Hamas.
The Nobel Peace Prize is worth 12 million Swedish kronor and will be presented in Oslo on December 10.
