Contributor(s): Navanethem Pillay | Navanethem Pillay is UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, she took up office on 1 September 2008. Ms. Pillay, a South African national, was the first woman to start a law practice in her home province of Natal in 1967. Over the next few years, she acted as a defence attorney for anti-apartheid activists, exposing torture, and helping establish key rights for prisoners on Robben Island.