Louise Arbour, an Exceptionally Ineffective U.N. Bureaucrat, to Step Down as High Commissioner for Human Rights
I would like to think that on defending human rights, the U.N. may soon become a little less worthless, but we might have said so when Mary Robinson stepped down, too. Recent history isn’t encouraging. You can’t defend something you can’t define. Still, Rep. Ileana-Ros Lehtinen is pleased:
(WASHINGTON) ““ The announcement that United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour would not be seeking a second term is “the first step toward saving the broken UN human rights infrastructure from itself,” U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) said today.
In a recent letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, Ros-Lehtinen, Ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, was joined by Acting Committee Chairman Howard Berman (D-CA) in expressing deep concern over Ms. Arbour’s recent endorsement of an Arab League Charter that contained blatantly anti-Semitic and anti-Israel statements.
Ms. Arbour has earned notoriety for a number of questionable decisions during her tenure as High Commissioner. On her watch, the UN has ended human rights monitoring in Cuba and Belarus and has failed to hold the Chinese regime accountable for its gross human rights violations. In fact, in January of this year, Chinese news agency Xinhua quoted her as lauding Beijing’s commitment to human rights.
Ms. Arbour drew criticism again this month when, in the wake of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro’s resignation, she chose to praise the regime for demonstrating “unprecedented positive engagement with the U.N. human rights system,” rather than using the occasion to blast the communist regime for its violations of fundamental freedoms and liberties and its cruel, inhumane treatment of prisoners of conscience.
“Ms. Arbour has achieved the remarkable feat of bringing further disgrace to a UN human rights community of already great ill-repute,” said Ros-Lehtinen. “While genocide rages in Darfur and political dissidents are tortured in Iran, she chooses to spend her time condemning democracies and defending tyrants. Her decision not to seek a second term is a positive development for human rights and brings hope to victims of oppression worldwide, including those who languish in Cuban prisons and North Korean gulags. I hope Secretary-General Ban will carefully consider who will next ascend to the position. The quest for human rights cannot endure another Louise Arbour.
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United by what?