UNITED NATIONS - Diplomatic and UN officials say that a South African judge who was the first black woman to serve on her country's highest court will be the next UN human rights commissioner.

The appointment of Navanethem Pillay, an appeals chamber judge with the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, is expected to be announced next week by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The appointment must be approved by UN General Assembly.

Pillay, who holds a degree from Harvard Law School, was the first woman to start a law practice in the South African province of Natal, opening an office there in 1967.

The UN General Assembly elected her as a judge to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she served for eight years, including four years as president.

She will succeed Louise Arbour, a former Supreme Court judge in Canada, as human rights commissioner, one of the most high-profile positions at the United Nations.

Arbour, who was chief prosecutor of the UN tribunals for war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, helped raise the job's profile through her outspokenness and by nearly doubling her office's budget to almost $100 million.

Her office and the 47-nation UN Human Rights Council, which addresses human rights violations, are based in Geneva, Switzerland.

The two other top contenders for the job of UN human rights commissioner were Hina Jilani of Pakistan, a special UN envoy on human rights, and Juan Mendez of Argentina, a special UN envoy on genocide.

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