[APWW-Meet] new rights chief for U.N.

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Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times=20
                              All Rights Reserved=20
                               Los Angeles Times=20

                             July  18, 2008 Friday  =20
                                  Home Edition=20

SECTION: MAIN NEWS; Foreign Desk; Part A; Pg. 11=20

LENGTH: 548 words=20

HEADLINE: A new rights chief for U.N.;=20
A South African judge who serves on the International Criminal Court
will fill=20
the post, officials say.=20

BYLINE: Maggie Farley, Times Staff Writer=20

DATELINE:   UNITED NATIONS  --  =20

 BODY:=20

   The secretary-general will name South African Judge Navanethem Pillay
as the=20
next U.N. human rights commissioner as early as today, diplomats and
U.N.=20
officials said Thursday.=20

   The daughter of a Tamil bus driver in Durban, she experienced human
rights=20
violations firsthand. Pillay earned a law degree at Harvard, but for 28
years=20
during apartheid, she was not allowed to set foot in a judge's chambers
as a=20
lawyer because of her South Asian origins. In 1995 she became the first
woman of=20
color to become a judge on the High Court.=20

   Pillay, born in 1941, also served as a judge on the International
Criminal=20
Tribunal for Rwanda prosecuting crimes related to that nation's
genocide. She=20
presided over landmark cases in international law that established rape
as a war=20
crime, convicted a former head of state for atrocities committed during
his rule=20
and prosecuted media for inciting genocide. She has served for five
years on the=20
International Criminal Court at The Hague.=20

   Pillay may not be as outspoken as the current commissioner, Canadian
Judge=20
Louise Arbour, who often shamed governments and leaders that
Secretary-General=20
Ban Ki-moon would not criticize by name.=20

   Arbour took the forefront on issues such as the  United Nations'
opposition=20
to capital punishment when Ban said he supported each state's right to
decide=20
whether to use it, and has criticized the United States for skirting=20
international law in its fight against terrorism.=20

   Human Rights advocates wonder whether Pillay will stand up to big
powers when=20
they violate human rights, or push her native South Africa on
controversial=20
issues, such as human rights violations in neighboring Zimbabwe and
elections=20
there that the U.N. has declared illegitimate.=20

   "The challenge for her will be to use the bully pulpit and be a
strong=20
advocate for human rights," said Kenneth Roth, the executive director of
Human=20

***************************
Melinda Ching Simon
Women's Rights and Gender Unit
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ave Giuseppe Motta 48, Office 2-022
UNOG CH 1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
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