UN human rights office welcomes Nobel Prize winner Pillay as staunch defender of human rights

The United Nations human rights office on Friday welcomed the news of Navi Pillay's Nobel Peace Prize win, acknowledging her longstanding advocacy for human rights.

"It is amazing news, we need more dedication and commitment to human rights," Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, told reporters in Geneva.

Navi Pillay was the former head of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and a former International Criminal Court judge.

In September last year Pillay oversaw the publishing of a report by the UN Commission of Inquiry that concluded that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that top Israeli officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu incited these acts - accusations that Israel called scandalous.

"We hope it will encourage and continue to encourage and inspire others to speak out in protection and promotion of the human rights of all people around the world," Mantoo said in reaction to Pillay's win.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin, editing by Emanuele Berro and Linda Pasquini)