Savitri Goonesekere is a jurist and academic from Sri Lanka. She is an international expert on the rights of children.
Sarath Nanda Silva PC served as the 41st Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka.
Sir Patrick Elias,PC,is a retired Lord Justice of Appeal.
Navanethem "Navi" Pillay is a South African jurist who served as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights from 2008 to 2014. A South African of Indian Tamil origin,Pillay was the first non-white woman judge of the High Court of South Africa. She has also served as a judge of the International Criminal Court and President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. Her four-year term as High Commissioner for Human Rights began on 1 September 2008 and was extended an additional two years in 2012. In September 2014 Prince Zeid bin Ra'ad succeeded her in her position as High Commissioner for Human Rights. In April 2015,Pillay became the 16th Commissioner of the International Commission Against the Death Penalty. She is also one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders.
Deshamanya Radhika Coomaraswamy is a Sri Lankan lawyer,diplomat and human rights advocate who served as an Under-Secretary General and Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict from 2006 to 2012. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed her to the position in April 2006. In 1994,she was appointed the United Nations’Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women —the first under this mandate. Her appointment marked the first time that violence against women was conceptualized as a political issue internationally.
Janice Marie Holder is an American judge who served as a circuit court judge for Tennessee's Division II Circuit Court in the 30th district,served as the third woman justice on the Tennessee Supreme Court from 1996 until 2014,and was the first female Chief Justice of Tennessee on the Tennessee Supreme Court from 2008 until her retirement in 2014.
Christopher Gregory Weeramantry,AM was a Sri Lankan lawyer who was a Judge of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) from 1991 to 2000,serving as its vice-president from 1997 to 2000. Weeramantry was a judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka from 1967 to 1972. He also served as an emeritus professor at Monash University and as the president of the International Association of Lawyers against Nuclear Arms.
Sabita Singh is an American lawyer and Judge of the Massachusetts Appeals Court.
Professor Maithree Wickremesinghe is the former First Lady of Sri Lanka as the wife of President Ranil Wickremesinghe. She is a Sri Lankan academic,writer,and professor of English at the University of Kelaniya. She specialises in gender and women's studies.
Anita Ušacka is a Latvian and international judge and legal academic. She has been a judge of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Latvia and of the Trial and Appeals Divisions of the International Criminal Court (ICC). She was president of the Appeals Division of the International Criminal Court in 2011/2012. She retired in 2015.
Upatissa Atapattu Bandaranayake Wasala Mudiyanse Ralahamilage Shirani Anshumala Bandaranayake,known as Shirani Bandaranayake,served as the 43rd Chief Justice of Sri Lanka. Although a qualified lawyer,she has never practiced law. After university Bandaranayake entered academia,holding a number of senior positions at the University of Colombo,including associate professor of law and the dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Colombo. She was first appointed to the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in 1996,becoming Sri Lanka's first female Supreme Court Judge. Bandaranayake was appointed chief justice in May 2011 following the mandatory retirement of Asoka de Silva. Bandaranayake was controversially impeached by Parliament and then removed from office by President Mahinda Rajapaksa in January 2013. and on 28 January 2015 the government of Sri Lanka,had removed all obstacles for Bandaranayake to hold her position as the 43rd Chief Justice by the President Maithripala Sirisena,on the ground that her 2013 impeachment was unlawful and as such the appointment of Mohan Peiris,her successor,was void Ab initio. This paved the way for Bandaranayake to resume duties on 28 January 2015. She retired from the position on 29 January 2015,one day after her reappointment,claiming support for a free and fair Judiciary in Sri Lanka.
Kanagasabapathy J. Sripavan is a Sri Lankan Tamil lawyer and judge. He was Deputy Solicitor General,judge and president of the Court of Appeal,Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and the 44th Chief Justice of Sri Lanka.
Joseph Asoka Nihal De Silva was the 42nd Chief Justice of Sri Lanka.
Victor Tennekoon QC was a Sri Lankan lawyer and jurist. He served as the 35th Chief Justice of Sri Lanka,as well as the 33rd Attorney General and 23rd Solicitor General. From 1979 to 1984 Tennekoon served as Chancellor of the University of Peradeniya.
Shanthi Eva Wanasundera PC is a Sri Lankan judge and lawyer. She is a former puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. Prior to her appointment as puisne justice,in 2012,she served as Solicitor General and Attorney General of Sri Lanka.
Kankanithanthri T. Chitrasiri is a puisne justice of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka who was appointed by President Maithripala Sirisena in 2016 to replace Justice Rohini Marasinghe. He was justice of the Court of Appeal of Sri Lanka,judge of the High Court and a magistrate.
Women in law describes the role played by women in the legal profession and related occupations,which includes lawyers,paralegals,prosecutors,judges,legal scholars,law professors and law school deans.
Mandisa Muriel Lindelwa Maya is the Chief Justice of South Africa. She was formerly the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal from 2017 to 2022 before she was elevated to the position of Deputy Chief Justice of South Africa in September 2022. She joined the bench in May 2000 as a judge of the Transkei Division of the High Court of South Africa and was elevated to the Supreme Court of Appeal in 2006.
Ayesha A. Malik is a Pakistani judge. She is the first female judge of the Supreme Court in the history of Pakistan. On 6 January 2022,the Judicial Commission of Pakistan approved her appointment to the Supreme Court of Pakistan. She took her oath of office on 24 January 2022. Malik has also served as a Judge of the Lahore High Court in Pakistan from 27 March 2012 to 5 January 2022.
