Navi Pillay Speaks to SGS Students

Stanford Global Studies (SGS), in partnership with the WSD HANDA Center for Human Rights and International Justice, presented its inaugural SGS Student Dinner featuring Former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay.

 Approximately 80 students and faculty members from SGS’s 14 affiliated centers and programs gathered at the Stanford Faculty Club on May 4 to celebrate their spirited SGS community with a guest who embodies the ideals of global studies. 

“It was a wonderful opportunity not only to introduce our students to a very influential and thoughtful leader in the field of human rights and international justice, but also to provide an opportunity for SGS students across centers and disciplines to meet each other and interact with faculty members,” said SGS Faculty Director Norman Naimark. “We hope to offer similar events for our students in the future."

Pillay focused her remakrs on what she sees as future challenges in the arena of human rights, including the implications of technology on privacy, counterterrorism measures, and climate change. She further reflected on her long and illustrious career in the field.

In 1967 she was the first woman to start a law practice in her native province of Natal, South Africa. Based on this experience, Pillay went on to serve as a defense attorney in the anti-apartheid movement and was eventually appointed as an acting judge on the country’s High Court.

Many of the students in attendance reveled in the opportunity to interact with such a guest and noted Pillay’s openness and candor while answering their questions.

"I have enjoyed so many opportunities to do amazing things because of SGS, not least among them meeting the former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,” said Alina Utrata, a junior majoring in International Relations. “It reminds me that these people doing extraordinary things are just people too – and that puts our everyday struggle to change life here at Stanford into a wider global context."

SGS welcomes student suggestions for future speakers or other student-centered events. Please share your ideas by writing to sgs_information [at] stanford.edu (sgs_information[at]stanford[dot]edu).