Former UN High Commissioner for Human Right Navi Pillay was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The choice was widely praised in the human rights community. Pillay headed the UN Commission of Inquiry investigating crimes perpetrated by Hamas and Israel on October 7 2023 and thereafter. The quality of the Commission’s work was mixed. I analyze the Commission’s multiple reports at length in my new book, Gaza’s Gravediggers: An Inquiry in Corruption in High Places. Excerpted below is the Commission’s disingenuous findings on the Hamas rape allegations.
The “Patten mission” refers to a prior report by Pramila Patten, who was Secretary-General Guterres’s Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Conflict. Patten purported that “there are reasonable grounds to believe” that Hamas committed sexual violence “including rape and gang rape” on October 7. By her own admission, Patten adduced zero material evidence to substantiate her spectacular allegations.
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