The challenge for Mrs Mary Robinson as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights "is to be a consistent defender of human rights while maintaining credibility with governments that violate them", the New York Times said yesterday in an editorial. Saying that "pressures to back down will come both from the abusive governments and from the UN's own diplomatic culture", the editorial comments that the Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, "has chosen a High Commissioner likely to put up a strong fight".
"Mrs Robinson must work within the UN to ensure that human rights concerns are not slighted in its political and peace missions." She will "need to clean out unprofessional staff and bad management practices. Field officers must focus on human rights instead of diluting their missions," the newspaper says.
More emphasis should go to building local organisations that can monitor and champion human rights. The editorial says that Mrs Robinson's predecessor and first occupant of the post, Mr Jose Ayala-Lasso from Ecuador, "wasted" his authority. "Under pressure from member governments that use the UN for patronage jobs, he hired many uninspiring staffers. He was too reticent to criticise governments' human rights abuses, even in private meetings. The world can expect better from Ms Robinson."