Mr. Ghai, a distinguished academic, is the Sir Y. K. Pao Professor of Public Law at the University of Hong Kong, specializing in human rights and public law. He previously taught in Australia, Canada, Fiji, India, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States and Tanzania and has given named lectures in some of those countries.

He succeeds Peter Leuprecht, a human rights specialist with the Council of Europe and a former Dean of the Faculty of Law at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who was appointed in August 2000 and has now resigned.

Mr. Ghai, a graduate of Oxford University and Harvard University and a barrister at Britain's Middle Temple, has won many awards for his work. He also chaired the Kenyan Constitution Review Commission from 1999 to 2004 and the Kenya National Constitutional Conference from 2002 to 2004.