Nobel Peace Prize winner Pillay once urged China to reveal the truth about June 4th

South African judge Navanethem “Navi” Pillay won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the promotion of peace and international law. During her tenure as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, she asked China to reveal the truth about the "June 4th Incident" and also challenged China on the Tibetan issue.

Pillay served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, resigning at the end of August that year. Before leaving office, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the June Fourth Incident in 2014, she called on China to reveal the truth about the military clearing of Tiananmen Square in Beijing.

According to reports from Reuters and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that year, she said that in the absence of independent fact-finding, it is still unclear what the situation was at that time. Estimates of the death toll of demonstrators, mostly students and workers, ranged from hundreds to thousands. "It is in everyone's interest to find out the truth about the Tiananmen incident." "Rather than suppressing attempts to commemorate the 1989 incident, the authorities should encourage and promote dialogue and discussion to overcome this historical legacy," she said.

The BBC reported that year that Pillai issued a statement emphasizing that the sentence was a setback for human rights in China when Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison by the court in December 2009 for "inciting subversion of state power." Following the self-immolation protests in Tibet, Pillai also called on China to properly handle the grievances of Tibetans and urged Tibetans to use "other methods" other than self-immolation to protest.

Pillay, 85, is a former president of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) and the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI). He is currently a judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) hearing Myanmar's alleged genocide case.

Jorgen Watne Frydnes, chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, announced on the 9th that Pillay would win the Peace Prize this year. He praised Pillay for his extraordinary courage and integrity in leading the way towards a more comprehensive global legal order and "playing a key role in ensuring that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are prosecuted."