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, including due to concerns about her nationality. I can’t confirm this, but it bears some scrutiny.
1 Comment
July 17, 2008 at 10:53 pm
Re. US opposition to Ms. Pillay. If this is correct it would certainly be a suitable reaction to South Africa under Mbeki, but it would be a sad reaction to the South Africa of Mandela that overcame apartheid – Ms. Pillay was reportedly a part of this anti-apartheid effort and it would be unfair for her to suffer the burden of Mbeki’s poor approach to international human rights. It would be much fairer if Ms. Pillay could be selected/or not based on her own credentials. Various NGO accounts of Ms. Pillay’s work suggest that Hina Jilani would bring a much more astute political approach to the mandate and be more adept at tackling some of the most chronic and complex human rights concerns the World faces today. Arguably, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights does not need so much the judicial rigour of Ms.Pillay as the human rights integrity and political ability of Ms. Jilani.