RIGHTS: UN High Commissioner Rejects Second Term

By Gustavo Capdevila Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo Capdevila

GENEVA, Mar 19 2001 (IPS) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, announced Monday that she will step down from her post in September and will not seek a second four- year mission.

In a surprise announcement Monday at the opening of the UN Human Rights Commission’s annual sessions, Robinson stated that she will continue to dedicate herself to the human rights cause, though “outside of the constraints that a multilateral organisation inevitably imposes.”

The UN chief’s decision stunned delegates from the 53 countries that make up the UN’s maximum arena on human rights.

Leaders of rights-related non-governmental organisations (NGOs) indicated that one of the reasons for the decision could lie in Robinson’s dissatisfaction with the process leading up to the World Conference against Racism, slated for September.

Robinson, said the NGO leaders, shares the criticism of academic and civil society sectors against governments for their hesitation in taking on commitments or implementing follow-up mechanisms in the fight against all forms of discrimination and intolerance.

The High Commissioner conceded in a media conference in Geneva that one of the limitations of her office is the sharp imbalance between the broad mandate conferred upon it by the UN and the meagre budget it receives.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has an annual budget of 21 million dollars, equivalent to less than two percent of the total UN budget.

Robinson, a former president of Ireland, expressed her concern about the working conditions of the 250 people on staff at the UN human rights office, pointing out that their contracts are uncertain and short term.

“I will continue to work whole-heartedly for human rights in the way that I know best – as an advocate,” she stressed.

In the last year, Robinson has been enveloped in inquiries into human rights violations in places such as Chechnya, the Palestinian Territories, East Timor and Colombia.

Some of the governments coming under question have reproached the UN for its allegedly politicised focus. But Robinson responds that such criticisms generally come from countries where human rights protections are lacking.

Robinson’s mandate ends in September, following the World Conference against Racism, to be held in Durban, South Africa.

The UN’s human rights chief has served in that role since Sept 1997, when she left the Irish presidency to replace the first-ever UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, José Ayala Lasso, of Ecuador.

In the six weeks of its annual sessions the UN Commission on Human Rights will study and issue statements about the reports presented by experts about human rights-related topics and about individual countries.

On Monday, the Commission designated as president of the sessions Leandro Despouy, delegate from Argentina, a veteran militant for human rights, jurist and academic who suffered persecution during his country’s last dictatorship (1976-1983).