Navanethem "Navi" Pillay (born in 1941) is the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights since 2008

She was the first non-white woman on the High Court of South Africa in 1995, and she has also served as a judge of the International Criminal Court and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. 

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. 

During her 28 years as a lawyer in South Africa, she defended anti-Apartheid activists and helped expose the use of torture and poor conditions of political detainees. In 1973, she won the right for political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela, to have access to lawyers. 

In 2003, Pillay received the Gruber Prize for Women’s Rights. She has been awarded honorary degrees by Durham University, the City University of New York School of Law, the London School of Economics and Rhodes University. In 2009, Forbes ranked her as the 64th most powerful woman in the world.