UN rights chief adds voice to call for speedy adoption of new human rights body

Failure by the United Nations General Assembly to approve the proposed new Human Rights Council could immeasurably damage the cause of human rights, and there is no reason to believe that further negotiations would produce a better mechanism, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has warned.

"The proposal presented by the President of the General Assembly to establish the Human Rights Council provides a unique opportunity to start putting in place a reinvigorated system for the promotion and protection of fundamental freedoms around the world and deserves the support of Member States," High Commissioner Louise Arbour said.

"Failure to adopt the proposal threatens to set back the human rights cause immeasurably," Ms. Arbour declared in a statement, adding her voice to those of Secretary-General Kofi Annan and General Assembly President Jan Eliasson in calling for speedy approval of a new Council with higher status and greater accountability to replace the much-criticized Human Rights Commission that now meets yearly in Geneva.

"The text submitted to the General Assembly by its President has the features to allow the future Council to deal more objectively, and credibly, with human rights violations worldwide," she said, noting that it sets standards for new member countries, who will be asked to make an explicit commitment to promote and protect human rights and provides for the suspension of members who commit gross and systematic abuses.

Ms. Arbour echoed Mr. Annan's statement on the proposal's release yesterday that while no delegation would get everything it wanted - indeed, Mr. Annan himself said he would have preferred States be elected by a two-thirds majority - the Council could be a basis for more effective human rights protection.

"Let us be clear: the proposal now before the General Assembly is the result of compromise. It cannot be an ideal blueprint. And there is no reason to believe that more negotiating time will yield a better result," she said.

She stressed that unlike the Commission, the Council would review periodically the records of all countries, beginning with its members, no country would be beyond scrutiny, and no longer could countries use membership of the UN's premier human rights body to shield themselves or allies from criticism or censure for rights breaches.

The Council will have higher standing as a subsidiary body of the General Assembly, meet year round as opposed to the six-week annual session of the Commission, and its members will be elected by a majority of all 191 UN Members.

But, like Mr. Annan, Ms. Arbour warned that it was vital for the international community to make the necessary changes in the culture of defending human rights for the Council to succeed.

"It was in large part its failure to make this change - its inability to reinvent itself after laying down the framework for the international human rights system - that hobbled the Commission. The case of Rwanda is sadly instructive," she said, referring to the genocide of up to 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremists in the Central African country in 1994.

"There the Commission's procedures worked, yet the investigator's warnings went unheeded. The political will and commitment of the international community will be as important to making the new Council work as any changes in structure or working methods."

Source: United Nations News Centre

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