"It is not too late to recall that the NATO Attack on the former Yugoslavia in 1999 was decided by this section of the ONU, with the "Universal Principle" to Protect Freedoms and Human Rights from Serbia's Ethnic Cleansing of Kosovo Albanians. It is paradoxical to think that such an action would be a model for other countries like Albania, with Muslim majority, , which systematically violates even during the dictatorial regime, but even now, the Freedoms and Human Rights of the Greeks of Himara and Northern Epirus, at a time when there is now, only observer for the gay rights in the world and no longer of ethnic groups threatened by states, of the totalitarian type".
By Tasos Kokkinidis Greek Reporter
March 7, 2021
Greek woman Photini Pazartzis United Nations
Photini Pazartzis elected to lead United Nations Human Rights Committee. Original photos: UN, Athens Law School; Illustration: Greek Reporter
A Greek woman, Professor of Public International Law, was elected earlier in the week as chairperson of the influential United Nations Human Rights Committee.
Photini Pazartzis was elected unanimously by all 198 participating states.
After her election she said it was a great honor for her to serve as Chair for the next two years. She became the first Greek woman to assume the leadership of the Committee.
The Human Rights Committee is the body of independent experts that monitors implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights by its state parties.
All states are obliged to submit regular reports to the Committee on how the rights are being implemented.
The Committee examines each report and addresses its concerns and recommendations to the State party in the form of “concluding observations”.
Pazartzis is Director of the Department of International Studies of the Athens Law School and Director of the LL.M. International and European Studies.
She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the areas of public international law, settlement of disputes, international courts and procedures, international human rights law, international criminal law, law of the sea.
The Greek Professor is President of the European Society of International Law (since September 2020).
She has been Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law and at Wolfson College of the University of Cambridge (1998, 2017-2018) and has lectured at several Universities and academic institutions.
Pazartzis is member of the Editorial Board of the European Journal of International Law; member of the Advisory Board of the Polish Yearbook of International Law.
She is also the author of numerous books and articles.