Above: UN Human Rights Chief Navanethem Pillay (UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Barbados will be the first English-speaking Caribbean nation to receive an official visit from a United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights this week when Commissioner Navanethem Pillay comes to the island.

Pillay, who will arrive in Barbados on Tuesday, will be in the country for a two-day mission. She will meet with Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, Foreign Minister Maxine McClean and other government officials.

Pillay, a South African national, was a judge for eight years on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

She will also conduct talks with Senate President Kerryann Ifill, Opposition Leader Owen Arthur and Sir Dennis Byron, President of the Caribbean Court of Justice, also a longtime UN International Tribunal judge.

Pillay is also expected to hold talks with academics and members of civil society.

While it is the first official visit by a UN Human Rights Commissioner to an English-speaking Caribbean country, it is not the first in the Caribbean.

The organization has had a strong presence in Haiti since the earthquake in 2010.