SECRETARY-GENERAL APPOINTS INDEPENDENT EXPERT TO UPDATE SET OF PRINCIPLES TO COMBAT IMPUNITY

14 September 2004



Secretary-General Kofi Annan has tasked Diane Orentlicher, a professor at American University’s Washington College of Law, with updating the United Nations Set of Principles for the protection and promotion of human rights through action to combat impunity. Ms. Orentlicher will serve as independent expert for a period of one year.

Ms. Orentlicher is a Co-Director of the Washington College of Law’s Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law. From 1995 to 2004 she served as a Director of theWar Crimes Research Office. She has authored an independent study on best practices, including recommendations, to assist States in strengthening their domestic capacity to combat all aspect of impunity. The study was submitted to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights at its sixtieth session last April.

Human rights expert Louis Joinet first submitted the Set of Principles to the Commission in 1997. In her update of the Set of Principles, Ms. Orentlicher will reflect on recent developments of international law and practice, including international jurisprudence and State practice.