Pillay Names Three Experts: International Inquiry Ready

The experts on the investigative team in the probe carried out by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the alleged abuses during the final phase of the war have been announced.

The three experts are the former President of Finland Martti Ahtisaari, former New Zealand's Governor Silvia Cartwright and Pakistani lawyer Asma Jahangir.

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They will be appointed to the panel and will be supporting and advising the team that is led by Senior UN Official Sandra Beidas.

Ahtisaari, former President of Finland and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has also served as a UN diplomat.

Cartwright was the 18th Governor-General of New Zealand. Prior to her appointment as Governor-General, she presided over a 1988 inquiry into issues related to cervical cancer and its treatment at Auckland's National Women's Hospital, known as the Cartwright inquiry.

Asma Jahangir is a leading Pakistani lawyer, advocate of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, President Supreme Court Bar Association of Pakistan and human rights activist, who works both in Pakistan and internationally to prevent the persecution of religious minorities, women, and exploitation of children.

 

She was the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief from August 2004 to July 2010 (first attached to the former Commission on Human Rights, now to the Human Rights Council). Previously, she served as the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Arbitrary and Summary Executions. She is also chairperson of Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.