In nominating Louise Arbour today as the next U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has chosen a skilled jurist and principled advocate, Human Rights Watch said.
Currently a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada, Arbour served as the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda from 1996 to 1999. Arbour was particularly effective in persuading the international community to execute arrest warrants for war criminals indicted by the tribunals.
“Justice Arbour is the embodiment of what is needed for this job,” said Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch. “She combines the human rights experience, international standing and moral stature needed to confront the worst and most powerful abusers.”
Arbour takes office at a particularly difficult moment for human rights within the United Nations system. Around the world, human rights are being assailed in the name of the international campaign against terrorism. The U.N. Commission on Human Rights, the highest international body devoted to human rights, has been plagued by a deepening crisis as it now counts some of world’s worst human rights abusers among its members. Meanwhile, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights is still recovering from the tragic death of its previous chief, Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in the August 19 attack on U.N. headquarters in Baghdad.
“The U.N. human rights system could not hope for a better leader at a time that it is under unprecedented attack,” said Roth.
Human Rights Watch called on Arbour to make these challenges to human rights a first priority during her tenure. In particular, she should press for the creation of an independent mechanism—such as a U.N. special rapporteur— to monitor how governments are using the fight against terrorism as an excuse to undermine human rights worldwide.
