Defending Louise Arbour

Outgoing UN Human Rights Commissioner Louise Arbour has been receiving a lot of negative press lately as she prepares to end her term without an attempt for re-appointment. Watchdog NGO, Human Rights Watch has been recently critical of her time in office, claiming that she was not critical enough of major powers Russia and China.

Her record shows that she did not criticize either of these global giants during her term but she has been effective in criticizing some of the worst human rights violaters in the world. The list of her most criticized violaters includes Burma, the DRC, Iran, Israel, Zimbabwe, Sudan and Uganda. I don't know about anyone else but when I think of places where human rights violations are prevalent the aforementioned are the places that first come to mind.

Furthermore, it has become increasingly made public that the Human Rights Council suffers from bloc voting. This has been able to curtail some of the things that the Council could have done. Much like the Security Council, the states protect their allies even if they are violaters of human rights. Currently China and Russia are both on the Human Rights Council which places the Human Rights Commissioner in a difficult position; if he or she (in this case) is critical of powerful states like China and Russia then those states are likely to make life difficult in the Council in order to protect themselves. This doesn't mean that the Commissioner abandons the pursuit of human rights in those countries, just that they do so in a way that doesn't leave stranded the human rights of those in more troubling areas.

Commissioner Arbour has been outspoken against some of the worst violators in the world, which has been her job. Rather than try to tarnish her term and the work she has done with useless diatribe let's honour her contribution and then look to the future.

- blenCOWe