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South African Judge is Appointed UN Human Rights Chief

4th Dec. '08

South African judge Navanethem Pillay has been appointed as the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Instituted in 1993, the High Commissioner for Human Rights is the highest UN office dealing with human rights. Pillay succeeds Canadian Louise Arbour, who completed her five-year term on 30 June.

An activist attorney under apartheid, Pillay has served as a judge on the International Criminal Court based in The Hague in the Netherlands since 2003. Prior to that, she served as both judge and president on the UN International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, which she joined in 1995. Pillay's nomination, Ban said in a statement last month, was made at the end of a "clear and rigorous" selection process which included consultations with UN member states, international non-governmental organisations and human rights organisations.

In 1967, Pillay became the first woman in what was then Natal province to open a law practice. As senior partner in the firm, she represented many opponents of apartheid, and handled precedent-setting cases establishing the effects of solitary confinement, the right of political prisoners to due process, and the family violence syndrome as a defence.

In 1973, Pillay made a successful application against commanding officer of the prison on Robben Island, establishing that political prisoners held on the island had rights and privileges. In 2003, Pillay was awarded the Human Rights Prize of the US-based Peter Gruber Foundation for her "courageous leadership in advancing women's human rights" while working on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

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