Dame Silvia Cartwright of New Zealand, who was a judge in the Khmer Rouge War Crimes Tribunal, will be one of two UN investigators to go into the human rights situation in Sri Lanka as a follow up to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution of March this year, sources in the UN confirmed on Monday.

“The second name is yet to be confirmed, but it is likely to be a Sudanese,” an official told Express.

The UN Hugh Commissioner of Human Rights Navi Pillay is to announce the two member team on Tuesday, sources said.

Dame Silvia and her colleague will complete the investigations in a 10-month period.

A media report on Monday said that Senior UN Staffer Sandra Beidas will lead the staff team from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), a Spokesperson for the Office confirmed.

If the UN team is not allowed to enter Sri Lanka, as indicated by the Lankan government, the two member team will collect information from outside the country and present a report, just as the Mazruki Darussman panel of the UN Secretary General did in 2011.  “They have already collected a lot of information. All they need is to update the information,” the source said.

Sri Lanka, under international pressure over its alleged rights abuses during the war with the LTTE, had set up a commission to probe the cases of thousands of missing persons.  The formation of the panel was a result of the LLRC recommendation, The New Indian Express reported.