South African attorney awarded Nobel Peace Prize

Navanethem Pillay, who has spent decades working on human rights issues including defending South African President Nelson Mandela and serving as a judge for the International Criminal Court tribunal that investigated the genocide in Rwanda, has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It was her work last year for a U.N. Commission on Israel and its treatment of Palestinians that drew the attention of the Nobel committee. That commission found that Israel was committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has condemned the Nobel committee’s decision to name Pillay, even though the committee did not overtly mention her work on the U.N. Commission on Israel in their award but rather cited her long career in human rights.