Leila Zerrougui (born 1956, in Souk-Ahras, Algeria) is an Algerian legal expert on human rights and administration of justice. She was appointed as United Nations Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the Democratic Republic of Congo in August, 2008.
Previously, she served as Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention under the United Nations Human Rights Council from 2003 to May 2008.[1] She has been a member of the Working Group since 2001. She has also served as expert member of a number of Working Groups and Committees to include under the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Before joining the UN Human Rights Council, she served on a variety of positions within the Algerian government. She was appointed to serve Algeria's Supreme Court in 2000 and held the position of “Chargé de mission” in the Presidency of the Republic of Algeria since 2000. From 1998 to 2000, she was legal advisor at the Cabinet of the Ministry of Justice. She served as judge on the Court of Appeals from 1986 to 1997 and on the first instance Tribunal from 1980 to 1986.
Zerrougui was one of the five authors of a United Nations report on human rights abuses of detainees held in the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
She is President of the Jury of the UNESCO/Bilbao Prize for the Promotion of a Culture of Human Rights (former UNESCO Prize for Human Rights Education).
Since 1993, Zerrougui has held various academic positions at law schools in Algeria, and is now Associate Professor of the Ecole Supérieure de la Magistraturein Algiers. She has published extensively on the administration of justice and human rights.
She graduated from the Ecole Nationale d’Administrationin Algiers in 1980.
Intervention at UN Human Rights Council 4th session on 21 September 2006 in Geneva: Video: [2] Report: [3]