International Judicial Monitor
Published by the International Judicial Academy, Washington, D.C., with assistance from the
American Society of International Law
Summer 2015 Issue
 

Leading Figures in International Law

 

Navanethem Pillay  (South Africa)

Navanethem Pillay

By: T’Aria Reynolds, Intern, International Judicial Academy

Judge Navanethem Pillay is a South African jurist and activist for human rights. She was born a non-white in apartheid South Africa. In order to succeed as a lawyer she was forced to start her own practice. As a result, she became the first non-white woman to open her own practice in her home province of Natal. During her 28 years as a lawyer she defended many anti-apartheid activists. In 1973, Judge Pallay advocated and won the right for political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, to have access to a lawyer.

Judge Pillay began her judicial legal career as the first non-white woman judge to sit on the High Court of South Africa. As a newly appointed judge this was the first time in her legal career she was able to enter a judge’s chambers. As a sitting judge she presided over both criminal and civil cases. Subsequently, the United Nations General Assembly elected her to serve as a judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). She served as a judge for eight years, including four years as president. During her term she is credited for her role in the groundbreaking jurisprudence on rape and sexual assault as acts of genocide.

 

In 2003, Judge Pillay was elected to the first panel of judges on the International Criminal Court. She served as a judge in the Appeals Division for six years. In 2008 she resigned from office to take a position as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. She served as the 5th United Nations High Commissioner from 2008-2014. Her most recent appointment, in 2015, was by the International Commission Against The Death Penalty (ICDP), as its 16th Commissioner.

Judge Pillay graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Laws degrees from the University of Natal. Subsequently, she obtained a LL.M. and Doctor of Juridical Science from Harvard University. In 2003, she received the inaugural Gruber Prize for Women’s Rights. She also has been awarded honorary degrees by Durham University, the City University of New York School of Law, the London School of Economics, Rhodes University and the University of Leuven. She is the co-founder of Equality Now, an international women’s rights organization. Judge Pillay’s mission is to be “the champion of human rights in every part of the world.” She is eminently deserving to be selected as a “leading figure in international law.”

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with assistance from the American Society of International Law.

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