Entries from July 2008

July 30, 2008

New HR Commissioner speaks; farewell from me!

Thanks to the UN News Center

And a quick word to say thank you for all your interest, and I wish Ms Pillay a successful and productive tenure.
I feel we did, at the least, help open this process to increased public scrutiny, which is a fine objective. An informed populace is the guardian of democracy.
Farewell!
M
New UN [...]

July 24, 2008

Pillay nomination official, despite US opposition

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday named South African judge Navanethem Pillay as the world body’s new human rights chief, succeeding outspoken Canadian Louise Arbour, a U.N. spokeswoman said.
Pillay is currently a judge at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. U.N. diplomats and officials had said the United States had [...]

July 18, 2008

LA Times on Pillay

some nice bio detail here
By Maggie Farley, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 18, 2008
The daughter of a Tamil bus driver in Durban, she experienced human rights violations firsthand. Pillay earned a law degree at Harvard, but for 28 years during apartheid, she was not allowed to set foot in a judge’s chambers as a [...]

July 18, 2008

New York Times on Pillay

U.N. May Name Rights Chief on Friday
By ALAN COWELL
Published: July 19, 2008
LONDON — United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is considering appointing a South African lawyer, Navanethem Pillay, to succeed Louise Arbour as High Commissioner for Human Rights, according to a diplomat briefed on the appointment. An announcement could be made Friday.
Ms. Pillay, born into [...]

July 18, 2008

Reuters confirms Pillay

S.African to replace UN rights chief – diplomats
Thu 17 Jul 2008, 21:25 GMT
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, July 17 (Reuters) – The U.N. secretary-general plans to name South African judge Navanethem Pillay as the world body’s next human rights chief, succeeding the outspoken Louise Arbour, diplomats said on Thursday.
Pillay is now a judge at the International [...]

July 16, 2008

Pillay gets the job – sources

Well informed sources, which have proved reliable in the past, suggest Judge Pillay has got the job.
The announcement will not be made for a few days however.
Watch this space.
In the meantime, this from VOA.
Extra: there has been some rumours over recent days that the US ambassador Zalmay Khalizad was not in favour of this appointment, [...]

July 11, 2008

Shortlist of three confirmed

The SG is informing diplomats that there is a shortlist of three people -
Navanethem Pillay
Hina Jiliani
Juan Mendez
Pillay is still believed to be the favourite of the SG’s team; Zalmay Khalilzad, US ambassador, is said to be pushing for his own candidate – Sima Samar, from Afghanistan.
Is this official sharing of the names the long-promised [...]

July 10, 2008

Will the UN General Assembly have a say?

This from Inner City Press:
UN Human Rights Post Will Be Awarded Before Any Briefing of GA, Kerim Claims Input and Fight for his Office’s Funding
Byline: Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, July 9 — With the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights post vacant for more than a [...]