The U.N.'s Five Wise Men

To create a commission of truly impartial investigators requires a lot of shrewd judgments. After much inquiry, United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim finally picked the five members. Both the U.S. and Iran warily weighed them and then approved. The five are all men with low profiles and high marks for integrity. They all have experience in three main areas--the law, diplomacy and human rights. The commissioners:

Co-Chairman Andres Aguilar Mawdsley, 55, chief counsel for Venezuela's state oil company, is a bon vivant who loves Caribbean music but is also an eloquent spokesman for democracy. Son of a professional diplomat, Aguilar earned a law degree from McGill University in Canada and a doctorate in political science from Venezuela's Central University, where he taught civil law and was law school dean in the 1950s. He suffered a painful lesson in political repression in 1956 when he was imprisoned for opposing General Marcos Perez Jimenez. After the Perez Jimenez dictatorship was overthrown, Aguilar became Minister of Justice under the new Democratic Action government in 1958.

Since then, he has served as Venezuelan Ambassador to both the United Nations and the U.S. and as chairman of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. He has been particularly visible as president of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States. In 1978 he headed a special team that investigated human rights violations in Nicaragua and issued a blistering attack on the Somoza regime. Another report is due soon on human rights violations in Argentina.

Co-Chairman Mohammed Bedjaoui, 50, is Algeria's chief delegate to the United Nations. An attorney who holds a doctorate from the University of Grenoble in France, Bedjaoui served from 1958 to 1961 as legal adviser to the rebels' provisional government during the protracted Algerian struggle against France. After Algeria achieved its independence in 1962, Bedjaoui held a series of high-ranking government posts, including Secretary General, Minister of Justice and Ambassador to France. Bedjaoui has been a member of the U.N. International Law Commission since 1965.

Adib Daoudy, 56, of Syria, is a member of the Alawites, a Muslim sect related to the Shi'ites, who form the dominant religious group in Iran. Although a foreign affairs adviser to Syria's President Hafez Assad, Daoudy has never belonged to a political party. Despite the fact that the Syrian government is pro-Khomeini, Daoudy has called the embassy hostage-taking an act that "has harmed everybody, including Iran and Islam." A graduate of the University of Damascus, he earned a Ph.D. in international law from the Sorbonne. In the early 1950s he served on the U.N. relief agency for Palestine refugees and argued in the U.N. for their repatriation and compensation. In private life, he is a devotee of classical music and a noted art collector.

Hector Wilfred ("Harry") Jayawardene, 63, brother of Sri Lanka President Junius Richard Jayawardene, is chairman of the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, an organization that promotes democracy and protection of human rights. In 1979 he was chairman of a UNESCO conference on human rights in Bangkok. Educated at the Royal College in Colombo and Ceylon Law College, he has been an attorney since 1941, and became one of the youngest men named to the prestigious position of Queen's Counsel. Jayawardene is a devout Buddhist and an ardent supporter of wildlife conservation.

Louis-Edmond Pettiti, 64, the son of a Paris restaurant waiter, has been a champion of human rights ever since he passed the Paris bar at the age of 19. Founder of the Institute for Training in Human Rights, sponsored by the Paris bar and UNESCO, Pettiti was appointed to the French seat on the 20-judge European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg last year. He has counseled some celebrated East European dissidents: Anatoli Shcharansky, whose 1978 Moscow trial for "treason" he was forbidden to attend, and Czechoslovak Playwright Vaclav Havel, who was convicted of "subversion" in 1979.

As president of Pax Romana, the International Movement of Catholic Lawyers, Pettiti once headed a team that investigated cases of torture by the Shah's security forces. Although he later became friends with President Banisadr and other Iranian exiles in France, Pettiti is known for his evenhandedness. Says one colleague: "He has the kind of impartiality that would allow him to begin his service on this commission without knowing today what conclusion he will reach tomorrow."

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