Academic

South African Woman Named Human Rights Commissioner for UN

By Ann Bartow

From the Feminist Daily News:

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon named South African judge Navanethem Pillay the UN high commissioner for human rights Thursday. She will serve a five-year term, replacing Louise Arbour, after her nomination is confirmed by the General Assembly Monday, reports the Washington Post.

The U.S. has accepted her nomination, despite initial objections to her vocal support for abortion access, according to BBC News. She co-founded the international women?s rights organization, Equality Now, and continues to support a woman?s access to abortion, contraceptives and reproductive freedom, according to the Associated Press.

Pillay is currently a judge at the International Criminal Court and has worked tirelessly in the past defending anti-apartheid activists in her native South Africa. She was the first woman to start a law practice in Natal Province in South Africa and also served as the first non-white woman to serve in the country?s High Court, according to BBC News.

Full post as published by Feminist Law Professors on July 27, 2008 (boomark / email).