New York, 27 January 2017 / United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has designated Diego García-Sayán of Peru as member of the Selection Mechanism mandated to select judges and other officials for the Special Jurisdiction for Peace established by the peace agreement reached in Colombia last year. Mr. García-Sayán will act as an external expert and in full independence.

Mr. García-Sayán is a lawyer and former Judge and President of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. He served previously as Peru's Minister of Justice and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. García-Sayán has broad experience with the United Nations. He was named Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers in December 2016 and was head of the human rights component of the United Nations Observer Mission in El Salvador (ONUSAL), Chairperson of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and member of the Redesign Panel on the United Nations System of Administration of Justice.

The Government of Colombia and the FARC-EP invited the Secretary-General, the Criminal Chamber of the Supreme Court of Colombia, the International Centre for Transitional Justice, the Standing Committee of the State University System in Colombia and the President of the European Court of Human Rights to each designate a person to serve on the selection panel.