Harvard-educated Indian origin judge Navanethem Pillay is the new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights after the General Assembly voted unanimously to confirm her nomination to the sensitive post.
Pillay, 67, who is from South Africa, will succeed Louise Arbour of Canada who completed her term on June 30.
Pillay, who was formally nominated to the post by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon last week, will assume her new post on September one for a four-year term.
Welcoming Pillay's appointment yesterday, Ban said he was "gratified" that his nomination of Pillay as Arbour's successor has been endorsed by the General Assembly."
Pillay is serving as a judge on the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague since 2003. She had earlier served both as judge and president on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda which she had joined in 1995.
The job of human rights commissioner is both high profile and controversial as member States are very sensitive to their respective records.
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Born into an ethnic Tamil family during apartheid days she was brought up in a poor neighbourhood and had the taste of discrimination.
Despite odds, she became the first woman to start law practice in South Africa's Natal Province in 1968 and defended several anti-apartheid activists and successfully fought for the right of political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, to have access to lawyers.
In 1992, she co-founded Equality Now which works women's rights across the world. In 2003 she received the inaugural Gruber Prize for Women's Rights.