Biographies of the members of the Independent Investigation on Burundi

Ms Sahli-Fadel (Algerian) has been teaching law at the Law Faculty of the University of Algiers 1 since 1981, and at the Diplomatic Institute of International relations (IDRI) and at the National School of Magistrates (ENM) since 2000.

She had been a lawyer at the Bar of Algiers from 1987 to 1994. She has been a member of the Commission on Human Rights and Peoples since 2011. In this capacity, she is the African Union Special Rapporteur on Refugees, Asylum Seekers, Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons, and a member of the Working Group on Death Penalty and the Working Group on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

Between 2008 and 2014, Ms Sahli-Fadel was a member of the United Nations Working and Expert Group on People of African Descent.  

Mr. Heyns (South African) is the director of the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa and professor of human rights law at the University of Pretoria, where he has also directed the Centre for Human Rights, and has engaged in wide-reaching initiatives on human rights in Africa. He has advised a number of international, regional and national entities on human rights issues. In August 2010, he was appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions.

Mr. de Greiff (Colombian) is Director of the Project on Transitional Justice of the Centre for Human Rights and Global Justice at the New York University School of Law. From 2001 to 2014, he was Director of Research at the International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). In 2012, he was appointed by the Human Rights Council as the first Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees Of Non-Recurrence. Mr. de Greiff has worked with different transitional justice bodies across the world and has provided advice to a number of Governments and multilateral institutions on international policy, transitional justice, and on the linkages between justice, security and development.

The experts are not United Nations staff. They are not remunerated and serve in their independent personal expert capacity.