New United Nations human rights chief Navanethem Pillay said on Monday she would be impartial in her role but not shy away from confronting rights abusers.
”I think the high commissioner should fearlessly focus on protecting victims all over, and that does involve speaking against the violators as well,” Pillay told journalists on her first day in office.
The South African comes to Geneva from her previous role as a judge at the International Criminal Court, and has her roots in the anti-apartheid movement where she defended activists and trade unionists against the white minority regime.
”It’s a big change from my previous position as a judge but I think that my judicial experience qualifies me to be impartial and independent and to be outspoken, but to be always based on factual information,” Pillay said.
”I come with my heart for victims all over the world because I suffered as a victim in apartheid South Africa,” she added.
Born in 1941 of Tamil origin, Pillay became the first non-white woman to be appointed a judge in a South African high court in 1995, after the end of the apartheid regime.
She replaces Canadian jurist Louise Arbour, who announced in March that she would not renew her mandate due to personal reasons, after a period that saw her office release damning reports on countries ranging from the United States to Zimbabwe to Sudan.
Pillay paid fulsome tribute to her predecessor, saying she intends to ”continue her good work”. — AFP
