UNITED NATIONS – The United Nations chief told rights advocates Friday that his choice to be the next U.N. human rights commissioner is a South African judge who was the first black woman to serve on her country's High Court, the director of Human Rights Watch said.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he had selected Navanethem Pillay for the job, but he had not yet taken official action, said Kenneth Roth, who was among a dozen representatives from human rights groups who met with Ban.

“Ban described her as the presumptive nominee,” Roth said.

Ban's office is expected to announce her appointment early next week, said U.N. and diplomatic officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the appointment had not yet been announced.

Pillay, who is now an appeals chamber judge with the International Criminal Court in the Hague, Netherlands, must be approved by U.N. General Assembly.

Some nations, such as the U.S., have expressed reservations about Pillay, including how she might handle next year's follow-up to the 2001 U.N. racism conference in South Africa, which drew controversy due to anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli stands.

Some rights groups have questioned whether Pillay could be an effective, outspoken champion of human rights, officials said.

One diplomat expressed skepticism that Pillay would be confirmed, but others said her nomination was not expected to meet any significant opposition in the General Assembly.

Pillay would succeed Louise Arbour, a former Supreme Court judge in Canada, as human rights commissioner, one of the most high-profile positions at the United Nations.

Arbour, who was chief prosecutor for the U.N. tribunals for war crimes in Yugoslavia and Rwanda, helped raise the rights job's profile through her outspokenness and by nearly doubling her office's budget to almost $100 million. Her office and the 47-nation U.N. Human Rights Council, which addresses human rights violations, are based in Geneva, Switzerland.

Roth said Pillay's challenge “will be to speak out publicly in the face of severe abuse, and to ensure that her office addresses even powerful governments, whether the United States on its abusive counterterrorism policies or her own South Africa for its callous defense of (President Robert) Mugabe's repression in Zimbabwe.”

The General Assembly has not been officially notified of her selection, officials said. Ban was expected to consult with all the groups representing various regions of the world in the 192-nation General Assembly.

The assembly previously elected Pillay as a judge to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she served for eight years, including four years as president.

Pillay, who holds a degree from Harvard Law School, was the first woman to start a law practice in the South African province of Natal, opening an office in 1967, according to the International Criminal Court, which provided background information.

The two other top contenders for the job were Hina Jilani of Pakistan, a special U.N. envoy on human rights, and Juan Mendez of Argentina, a special U.N. envoy on genocide.