GENEVA, Oct 9 (Reuters) – The UN human rights chief said on Friday that Navi Pillay’s Nobel Prize was a collective win for human rights and for all those seeking justice and accountability, including through the International Criminal Court.
Volker Turk, who worked closely with Navi Pillay during her tenure as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, described her as “the embodiment of international law”.
“The fact that the Nobel Award Commission decided to give this to Navi Pillay is a collective win for human rights, but also for (those) seeking justice and accountability in this world,” Turk said in response to a question about Pillay’s former role as an ICC judge.
“And it’s clear that we need international criminal accountability mechanisms, including the International Criminal Court, and it’s clear that we have a very strong signal that this is absolutely critical in today’s world.”
Pillay, who was chair of a UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory until last year, found that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza — a claim that Israel has dismissed as scandalous.
“It is a recognition not only of what she did in relation to Palestine, but frankly what she did in relation to so many other conflicts and situations around the world,” said Turk.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; editing by Matthias Williams, Aidan Lewis)
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