by WorldTribune Staff, October 13, 2026 Non-AI Real World News
A United Nations whistleblower and a human rights group have accused 2026 Nobel Peace Prize winner Navi Pillay of betraying Uyghur dissidents in China by handing their names to the communist regime in Beijing.
Navi Pillay
The whistleblower, former UN human rights officer Emma Reilly, alleges that Pillay, while serving in the UN, oversaw the communication of names of over 50 of the dissidents to China.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2026 prize to Pillay for what it described as her decades-long work promoting international law, prosecuting war crimes, and serving in key judicial bodies like the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice.
Reilly alleges that family members of the dissidents whose names Pillay handed to China had testified under oath about their relatives facing intimidation, arbitrary detention, torture, disappearance, or death in concentration camps.
Dolkun Isa, president of the Uyghur Center for Democracy & Human Rights, alleged that information about him was shared with the Chinese government while Pillay led the UN human rights office, putting his family in danger, Breitbart reported.
“For me, this was a profound betrayal of trust by an institution that should have protected us. The responsibility for this practice still demands a full and transparent accounting,” Isa said in a statement.
“A Nobel Peace Prize does not place anyone beyond accountability,” Isa continued. “I want answers: Why was information about human rights defenders shared with China? Who authorized it? And why did those entrusted with our protection fail us?”
The whistleblower organization UN Watch also condemned the selection, citing past criticisms of Pillay’s tenure, including her decision not to attend the 2010 Nobel ceremony honoring imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo.
Pillay, a South African-born jurist and former U.N. human rights chief whose career has included defending the rights of an imprisoned Nelson Mandela and leading a panel that found that Israel committed genocide in the Gaza Strip, was awarded the prize on Friday.
Reilly called Pillay an “absolute disgrace. This is an absolute travesty of ‘peace.’ ”
