Sri Lanka, Oct. 15 -- When Navanethem Pillay, who served as the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014, won this year's Nobel Peace Prize on last Friday we saw mixed reactions from Sri Lankans.

Many including Tamil leaders and anti-war campaigners welcomed it, while many in the southern parts of the island deplored it.

Among the UN High Commissioners for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, commonly known as Navi Pillay, can be described as the most familiar figure to the people of Sri Lanka. This is because it was during her tenure that the UN and its Human Rights Council began taking decisive actions regarding the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.

One cannot say definitively that she was the sole reason for these ac...