The awarding of the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize to South African jurist Navanethem «Navi» Pillay has sparked a wave of criticism that goes beyond the reactions of Donald Trump and the Israeli government.
According to the organization UN Watch and a former UN official, the award recipient is accused of remaining silent on human rights violations in Cuba and of being "complicit in the Uyghur genocide" during her tenure as the United Nations High Commissioner.
The most serious accusation comes from Emma Reilly, a former official of the UN High Commissioner’s Office, who claims that between 2008 and 2014, that office provided the Chinese authorities with the names of more than 50 dissenters—mostly Uyghurs—who were set to participate in sessions of the Human Rights Council, exposing them to reprisals.
The winner is an absolute disgrace, Reilly stated in the statement released after the announcement of the award.
Reilly asserts that some relatives of those activists suffered intimidation, arbitrary detentions, torture, and disappearances as a result of the leaking of their identities to the Chinese regime.
In April 2024, the former official submitted documentation regarding those practices to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the British Parliament.
The UN has acknowledged that there was a practice of name confirmation with certain states, but denies that it endangered human rights defenders and asserts that the practice ceased in 2015, a claim that Reilly rejects.
Another episode noted by Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, is that in December 2010, Pillay did not attend the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony awarded to Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was then imprisoned by the communist authorities. This was interpreted by human rights organizations as a concession to the pressures from Beijing.
In 2010, the Nobel Committee honored Liu Xiaobo for standing up to the Chinese dictatorship. Pillay refused to attend his ceremony. Now the Committee is awarding him the same prize, Neuer recalled, demanding explanations for the recognition.
Pillay's ties to Havana are also under scrutiny. In July 2008, Cuba supported her appointment as High Commissioner on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement.
In March 2010, while the death of the political prisoner Orlando Zapata Tamayo —who died after an 85-day hunger strike in prison— was generating international condemnation, Pillay smiled for the cameras in Geneva alongside Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.
In April 2019, she visited Havana as the president of the International Commission against the Death Penalty and expressed her gratitude for the hospitality of the Cuban regime and its willingness to consider recommendations to abolish that penalty.
However, the Penal Code approved by Cuba in 2022 not only maintained the death penalty, but also expanded the number of crimes punishable by it from 20 to 24.
A 2011 study by UN Watch documented that during her first two years as High Commissioner, Pillay remained silent about violations in 34 countries classified as "not free" by Freedom House, including Cuba, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Eritrea, while issuing 21 statements regarding the Middle East, nine of which were related to Israel.
The award also created a striking political contrast: Spanish President Pedro Sánchez congratulated Pillay warmly just two hours after the announcement, praising her for dedicating her life to "pursuing impunity and defending the weak against the powerful."
That speed contrasts with his attitude towards the Nobel Peace Prize awarded in 2025 to the Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado, when Sánchez refused to congratulate her publicly: "I do not comment on Nobel prizes, I do not weigh in on them," he stated at that time to Cadena SER.
The award ceremony for Pillay is scheduled for December 10, 2026, in Oslo.
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