Malaysian lawyer Param Cumaraswamy is a diminutive, polite and soft-spoken figure. On first impressions, he seems an unlikely candidate for the role of international champion of human rights.
But among the upper echelons of the United Nations, his methodical approach and quiet persistence, have raised the profile of a series of alleged human rights abuses.
Among these are the murders of solicitors Pat Finucane and Rosemary Nelson.
Mr Cumaraswamy steps down this month after nine years as the UN's 'special rapporteur' on the independence of lawyers and judges.
The post aims to ensure that lawyers can operate freel, and in accordance with international standards, thereby bolstering the rule of law around the globe.
During an official visit to Northern Ireland in 1997 he investigated the murder of solicitor Pat Finucane, killed eight years before by loyalist gunmen.
Mr Cumaraswamy also met Rosemary Nelson, the Lurgan-based solicitor, who at that time had made complaints of police intimidation.
Her story seemed to echo Mr Finucane's experience, sparking the concerns of Mr Cumaraswamy who raised the issue at the UN and urged the British government to protect Mrs Nelson.
Despite this, she was killed just over a year later in a loyalist car bomb attack in 1999.
Both solicitors had represented high profile clients accused of republican paramilitary activity and both claimed to have later received deaths threats from the then RUC.
Metropolitan Police investigators have since established there was security force collusion in Mr Finucane's killing, and the two cases are currently being considered for public inquiry.
"I have maintained all along that there was several similar features in the two murders," Mr Cumaraswamy said.
"If you look at the patterns and the sequence of events prior to the murder of Patrick Finucane in '89, and the subsequent murder 10 years after of Rosemary Nelson, you find some similarities, particularly with regard to the intensification of the threats prior to the murder.
"In the case of Rosemary Nelson I was – and I have mentioned it before – I was quite concerned for her, for her life.
"I had intervened with the government, I had informed the government about the various threats.
"And when (her murder) happened, though I was very, very saddened, in many ways I was not surprised.
"And the question I ask is, why wasn't she given adequate protection?
"Similarly, they did not give adequate protection to Patrick Finucane when there was evidence at the time, that the security forces – particularly the RUC – knew, or ought to have known, that he was going to be murdered and they never protected him."
The special rapporteur's post is usually held for two terms of three years each.
But Mr Cumaraswamy explains that having become "entangled" in a number of cases, he stayed on for an unplanned third term.
Over the last nine years he has investigated a string of controversial cases around the globe, reporting back to the UN High Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.
His extended stay in office has meant he was also able to brief Judge Peter Cory.
The retired Canadian supreme court judge was appointed by the British and Irish governments to review six cases where there are allegations that either British or Irish security forces colluded in murder.
Judge Cory will decide if public inquiries are warranted into any of the six cases, which include the murders of Mr Finucane and Mrs Nelson.
While it is estimated that the judge will have concluded his review by the autumn of this year, Mr Cumaraswamy has long recommended inquiries into the deaths of both solicitors.
Pat Finucane, who successfully represented republican defendants in a number of high profile cases, complained of police harassment and death threats prior to his killing.
It is now believed that security forces set him up for murder – prompting loyalist paramilitaries to target the solicitor, before providing his killers with intelligence information and later frustrating any efforts to convict them.
In April of this year the investigating team led by Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens issued an interim report confirming there was security force collusion in the killing.
British military intelligence and RUC Special Branch have been implicated, while former loyalist paramilitaries have come forward to detail how they were encouraged to target Mr Finucane.
In Mrs Nelson's case, her allegations of security force intimidation drew international attention prior to her death.
Today, human rights groups maintain these allegations have yet to be properly investigated, while they also criticise the British government for an alleged failure to do enough to protect Mrs Nelson, despite the appeals from figures such as Mr Cumaraswamy.
Controversy also surrounded the decision to have her murder investigated by a police team that included RUC officers, despite her claims members of the force had threatened her life.
The senior English officer leading the Rosemary Nelson murder hunt Deputy Chief Constable of Norfolk Colin Port, has defended his team's efforts and has also said he found no evidence of collusion.
Mr Port stepped down as head of the investigation late last year and a new figurehead has yet to be named, leading observers to believe the investigation, which cost in excess of £7 million, is effectively over.
The team did charge 17 people for a series of offences, many relating to loyalist paramilitary activity, linked mainly to the Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF).
Despite this apparent disruption of the LVF, however, the Rosemary Nelson team has so far failed to charge anyone in connection with her murder.
It is understood, however, that the suspects identified by police include a former British soldier who was still in the army at the time of the killing, as well as a loyalist identified in an unrelated court case as a police informant.
Mr Cumaraswamy said: "In this particular case (the Rosemary Nelson murder) it is correct to say that the evidence of collusion is more circumstantial.
"(But) even if there is purely strong suspicion, I think it is sufficient reason for a full-scale judicial public inquiry.
"One need not wait until there is 100 per cent evidence of collusion.
"If it is the case that there is 100 per cent evidence of collusion, there will not be a need for an inquiry. It would immediately conclude that there was state collusion and hold the culprits accountable.
"In prosecutions, if there is circumstantial evidence, that may be sufficient to proceed. And so therefore I feel, and my own view all along since the Rosemary Nelson murder has been, that there are parallels (with the Finucane case).
"The circumstances were the same. Pat Finucane was a high profile lawyer who was not very much liked by the RUC. So was Rosemary Nelson – handling these causes which the RUC didn't like very much at that time.
"So again I go back to repeat the same thing. There were parallels which could lead to some involvement of the forces of the state."
At this stage he urges prompt action from the British government over both cases.
During his period in office Mr Cumaraswamy submitted reports to the UN in Geneva calling for public inquiries into the two murders.
While the government declined these calls, he now accepts its decision to seek the opinion of a further outside source.
"But my only other concern, which I expressed in my recent report, was that the longer this inquiry, that is called for, is delayed, they are going to lose evidence, material evidence. And it will then be an exercise in futility," he said.
"And I think the public later on will question whether it is very worthwhile having an inquiry, spending so much money, and in the end find that there was no evidence because it had all disappeared.
"The Bloody Sunday inquiry is still going on, I understand, and costing a lot of public funds. That is a concern the public will have, so that is why it is extremely important to have this inquiry as soon as possible."
The UN official added: "I use the adage 'Justice delayed is justice denied'."
He again refers to the Pat Finucane case, and the role of loyalist Billy Stobie.
Stobie was a member of the loyalist paramilitary group, the Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF), at the time it killed Mr Finucane, and was arrested by the Stevens team in 1999 for his role in the murder.
It emerged, however, that Stobie had been a police informant and had passed information on the murder to the RUC at the time of the killing, but that no action was taken.
Stobie walked free from court in December 2001 when the murder trial against him collapsed.
He was shot dead by the UFF one week later outside his north Belfast home.
Mr Cumaraswamy said he expressed his concerns at the time that a "material witness" to the case had been murdered.
During the UN official's nine years in office, he successfully drew international attention towards cases such as Pat Finucane's, but his calls for inquiries in Northern Ireland have so far gone unheeded.
So as he draws a line under his term with the UN, does he look back on his efforts with a feeling of satisfaction, or of frustration?
"My only disappointment in the whole process is that Rosemary Nelson could have been saved and protected after the Patrick Finucane experience," he said.
"Unfortunately we couldn't prevent (her murder), and that was my disappointment and sadness in this whole thing.
"And I only hope that after these two murders the authorities will be extremely cautious in seeing that similar murders are not committed by anyone.
"Particularly when it comes to lawyers who are discharging their duty in accordance with the standards set by international law."
