UN:UN SECRETARY general Ban Ki-moon is expected to name South African judge Navanethem Pillay as the next UN human rights commissioner, according to diplomats and UN officials, writes Maggie Farley.
The daughter of a Tamil bus driver in Durban, Judge Pillay has experienced human rights violations. She earned a law degree at Harvard University but was not allowed to set foot in a judge's chambers for 28 years as a lawyer under apartheid because of her south Asian origins. In 1995, she became the first woman of colour to become a judge in the South African high court.
Judge Pillay, born in 1941, also served on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda to try crimes after the genocide in 1994 and presided over landmark cases in international law in which she established rape as a war crime, convicted a former head of state for atrocities committed during his rule, and prosecuted media for inciting genocide. She has served for five years on the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
Judge Pillay may not be as outspoken as the current and previous commissioners, Canadian judge Louise Arbour and former president Mary Robinson, who often shamed governments and leaders that the secretary general would not criticise by name.
"The challenge for her will be to use the bully pulpit and be a strong advocate for human rights," said Ken Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "As a judge, she has no experience with that."
But Judge Pillay's colleagues say she has her own firm, discreet way of achieving results. - (LA Times-Washington Post service)