On 19 May, the South African jurist Dr. Navanethem (Navi) Pillay has been elected as the new President of the Advisory Council of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy. She succeeds Professor Dr. Thomas Buergenthal in this function who for reasons of age, did not stand for re-election.
"We are delighted that Dr. Navi Pillay, who is an internationally renowned personality will hold the Presidency and will lead the Advisory Council with her outstanding legal expertise and her long-term practical experience," said Christian Much, Interim Director of the International Nuremberg Principles Academy.
Dr. Navi Pillay (75) is a distinguished expert on international criminal law and human rights. She served as the High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations from 2008 to 2014. Prior to that, she was a judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague from 2003 to 2008. From 1995 to 2003, she was, as the first and then only woman, judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, whose Presidency she held for four years.
In 1988, Navi Pillay was awarded the degree of Doctor of Juridical Science at Harvard Law School. In 1995, after the end of Apartheid, she worked at the Supreme Court of South Africa as a limited-term judge. Dr. Pillay has championed many human rights issues with which she herself had direct experience, having grown up under the Apartheid regime in South Africa. She plays an active role in numerous human rights organizations. Among other roles, she is the co-founder of "Equality Now", an international women’s rights organization.
