UN rights chief to step down
2008-03-08 09:39
Geneva - UN human rights high commissioner Louise Arbour said on Friday she will leave the high profile job after four years of fending off attacks by developing countries for criticising their rights record.
"It is very much for personal reasons. I'm not prepared to make this commitment for another four years," Arbour said in Geneva where she presented her annual report to the UN Human Rights Council.
The Canadian lawyer's mandate ends in June and Arbour said she has told UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that she will not seek a second term.
The 61-year-old former chief prosecutor of the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, has been at odds with several UN member states her tough stance on their human rights records. She has also won praise for her tenacious stance.
"It would be surprising or unimaginable to do this work for four years and to depart with unanimous accolades from all players, you would have to wonder about the quality of work," she said.
She admitted that she was hurt by the personal attacks made during her leadership, but denied that her decision was prompted by criticism from any country.
An 'excellent commissioner'
"Rather the reverse, I had to reason with myself to not succumb to the temptation to stay on to face it (the pressure)," Arbour told reporters.
Arbour also rejected a suggestion that her decision was due to disagreements between her office and the new 47-member Human Rights Council currently meeting in Geneva.
Human Rights Watch Geneva Advocacy Director Juliette de Rivero described Arbour as an "excellent commissioner".
"We are very sad to see her go. We really have appreciated what she has done. She built up the office, expanded it into the field. That was one of the most significant things she has accomplished," said de Rivero.
Arbour herself sees her greatest triumph as the increased collaboration of her office with UN peacekeeping missions around the globe.
She would not be drawn into discussing possible replacement candidates, but said it is a "very tough" job which requires tenacity as it moves deeper into the enforcement of human rights protection.
"We have to be out there assisting those whose obligations it is to enforce these rights, and this is not going to make the position of the commissioner more comfortable, more sheltered from criticisms, quite the opposite," she said.
Arbour said a legal understanding is crucial to the commissioner's work.
"It's not driven by a good heart and a predisposition to doing good, but by legal imperatives and it operates in a very law-based environment," she said.
Unlikely to disappear
Arbour said she has no ideas for her future. "I'm going home. I have no plans... nothing that can be put into the public domain," she said.
"In the short-term, I would like to spend time with my family, read. You have no idea how many books there are in the back of my shelves," she said.
But Arbour conceded she is unlikely to disappear from view. "I'm not throwing in the towel altogether... There's a part of me that has a fantasy of gardening, but there's a part of me that knows I'm not there yet," she said.