Human rights

Human rights are moral principles or norms, that describe certain standards of human behavior, and are regularly protected as legal rights in municipal and international law. They are commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights "to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being," and which are "inherent in all human beings" regardless of their nation, location, language, religion, ethnic origin or any other status. They are applicable everywhere and at every time in the sense of being universal, and they are egalitarian in the sense of being the same for everyone. They require empathy and the rule of law and impose an obligation on persons to respect the human rights of others. They should not be taken away except as a result of due process based on specific circumstances; for example, human rights may include freedom from unlawful imprisonment, torture, and execution.

High Commissioner

High Commissioner is the title of various high-ranking, special executive positions held by a commission of appointment.

The English term is also used to render various equivalent titles in other languages.

The Commonwealth

Bilateral diplomacy

In the Commonwealth of Nations, a High Commissioner is the senior diplomat (ranking as an ambassador) in charge of the diplomatic mission of one Commonwealth government to another. In this usage, a Commonwealth nation's High Commission is its embassy to another Commonwealth nation.

British Colonial usage

Historically, in the British Empire (most of which would become the Commonwealth) High Commissioners were envoys of the Imperial Government appointed to manage protectorates or groups of territories not fully under the sovereignty of the British Crown, while Crown colonies (which were British sovereign territory) would normally be administered by a Governor and the most significant possessions, large confederations and the independent Commonwealth Dominions would be headed by a Governor-General.

Navi Pillay

Navanethem "Navi" Pillay (born 23 September 1941) is a South African jurist who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. A South African of Indian Tamil origin, she was the first non-white woman judge of the High Court of South Africa, and she has also served as a judge of the International Criminal Court and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Her four-year term as High Commissioner for Human Rights began on 1 September 2008 and was extended an additional two years in 2012. She was succeeded in September 2014 by Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad. In April 2015 Pillay became the 16th Commissioner of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty.

Background

Pillay was born in 1941 in a poor neighborhood of Durban, Natal Province, Union of South Africa. She is of Tamil descent and her father was a bus driver. She married Gaby Pillay, a lawyer, in January 1965. She has two daughters.

Supported by her local Indian community with donations, she graduated from the University of Natal with a BA in 1963 and an LLB in 1965. She later attended Harvard Law School, obtaining an LLM in 1982 and a Doctor of Juridical Science degree in 1988. Pillay is the first South African to obtain a doctorate in law from Harvard Law School.

Barbara Ramsay Shaw

Barbara Ramsay Shaw is the William T. Miller Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Duke University, having been appointed to that position in 2006. She is known for her work on boranophosphates, using them to study the chemical reactivity of DNA, for applying synthetic chemistry to gene expression, signal transduction, and cancer treatment.

References

External links

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a United Nations agency that works to promote and protect the human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. The office was established by the UN General Assembly on 20 December 1993 in the wake of the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights.

The office is headed by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, who co-ordinates human rights activities throughout the UN System and supervises the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland. As of 1 September 2014, the current High Commissioner is Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad. The General Assembly approved on 16 June 2014 his appointment by the United Nations Secretary-General. He is the seventh individual to lead the OHCHR and the first Asian, Muslim, Arab and Prince to do so.

In 2012-2013, the agency had a budget of US$177.3 million and 1,000 employees based in Geneva. It is an ex-officio member of the Committee of the United Nations Development Group.