This week there is a lot of action going on at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. The UN Security Council is meeting about imposing new sanctions on Iran. The Commission on the Status of Women is in its second week of meetings.
To add to the action, now comes reports of controversy surrounding UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbor. Reuters reported last week that Arbour was expected to step down from the position in June, two years before her term ends.
On Monday the Associated Press reported from Geneva, where the High Commissioner's office is based: “UN chief wants council to lay off human rights commissioner.” By the title the AP means lay off, as in “ease up,” not lay off, as in “fire,” which is actually what the Council was hoping Secretary General Ban Ki Moon would do.
The AP reported that Ki Moon warned the 47 members states of the UN Human Rights Council, set up two years ago by the UN General Assembly, about meddling with the UN human rights staff:
“He was clearly referring to attempts by African countries in the council to rein in the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, and any of her successors. Diplomats said the countries had tried put the high commissioner's office under control of the council, which is heavily dominated by developing countries that are often in conflict with Arbour and Western nations over rights issues.”
Reuters explains that the High Commissioner's has controversy built in to the job description: “The High Commissioner's job, created in 1994, is central to the U.N.'s credibility as a protector of international human rights. Its holder has more or less free rein to comment on situations affecting rights around the globe. “
But apparently Arbour has ruffled the feathers of representatives in the developed world as well. Colum Lynch of the Washington Post reported that she has “also been a lightning rod for American conservatives, including the former U.S. envoy to the United Nations, John R. Bolton, who scolded her in 2005 for using Human Rights Day to criticize U.S. anti-terrorism tactics instead of highlighting rights abuses by countries such as Burma, Cuba and Zimbabwe. Even supporters say she has trod lightly over abuses by some of the most powerful U.N. members, including China and Russia, leaving the United Nations increasingly silent on some of the world's most pressing human rights issues.”
Indeed the Heritage foundation, a conservative think tank based in Washington, DC, called Arbour's rumored departure a “mixed blessing.” “Arbour has repeatedly demonstrated poor judgment and an alarming willingness to cater to the world's more repressive regimes, but there is no guarantee that her successor will be any better.
Lynch addedthat Arbour “took issue with congressional critics, particularly Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who implied that Arbour is responsible for the council's failing and in a statement Thursday said [Arbour] has a record of “condemning democracies and defending tyrants.”
Despite the critics, Lynch describedthat Arbour does have a fan base among human rights advocates: “Human rights advocates largely praised Arbour, a former Canadian Supreme Court justice, as a tough, principled lawyer who has offered the United Nations’ most forceful critique of the United States’ use of harsh interrogation techniques and the transfer of suspects to countries where they stand a chance of being tortured. They note that she has done more to expand the presence of U.N. rights monitors around the world, making reports on abuses from Baghdad to Katmandu routine.”
