The South African academic Professor Christof Heyns, who has died at the age of 62, was a world-renowned human rights advocate and academic. He was a thoughtful scholar of both the African and UN human rights systems, and an incredibly popular teacher and activist.
He leaves behind a remarkable legacy among generations of students across the continent and around the world.
But in addition to his shaping of the University of Pretoria’s contribution to human rights issues across the continent, Heyns also achieved a global impact by serving over the past decade in two high-profile United Nations positions. He was Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions (2010-2016); and a member of the UN Human Rights Committee (2017-2020).