2023 WOLFGANG FRIEDMANN MEMORIAL

AWARD RECIPIENT:

Judge Navi Pillay

On March 28, 2023, the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law awarded the 49th Annual Wolfgang Friedmann Memorial Award to Judge Navi Pillay. Gillian Lester, Dean of the Faculty of Law and Lucy G. Moses Professor of Law, provided introductory remarks. Nicholas Kourides, Chairman of the Board of the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law, introduced the Wolfgang Friedmann Memorial Award and Professor Sarah Cleveland, Louis Henkin Professor of Human and Constitutional Rights at Columbia Law School, introduced the award recipient.

Since 1975, the Columbia Journal of Transnational Law has presented the Wolfgang Friedmann Memorial Award to a distinguished scholar or practitioner who has made outstanding contributions to the field of transnational law.

As Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Judge of the International Criminal Court, and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, Judge Navi Pillay is an internationally recognized leader in international law and human rights. During her time as High Commissioner from 2008-2014, Judge Pillay took critical steps to defend the rights of LGBTQ people and led the organization through the opening stages of the Syrian Civil War. As President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), she played an important role in the landmark trial of Jean-Paul Akayesu, establishing that sexual assault could constitute an act of genocide.

Judge 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 defense attorney for anti-apartheid activists helping to establish key rights for prisoners on Robben Island. She also worked as a lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and later was appointed Vice-President of the Council of the University of Durban Westville. In 1995, Judge Pillay was appointed as acting judge on the South African High Court, and in the same year was elected by the UN General Assembly to be a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. In 2003, she was appointed as a judge on the International Criminal Court in the Hague, where she served on the Appeals until August 2008.

Throughout Judge Pillay’s career, she has addressed some of the most pressing international law issues of our time, spanning a remarkable geographic range. It is our great privilege to present Judge Navi Pillay with the 2023 Wolfgang Friedmann Memorial Award.