Human Rights Boss Arbour's Bull in China-shop Escapades End Abruptly

By Philip Fernando, former Deputy Editor Sunday Observer

The unflapable Miss Arbour retreated rather hastily from her Human Rights watch tower much to the relief of international observers who had been demanding her to behave in a more responsive manner for sometime now. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour virtually became law unto her own self when dispensing summary justice based on her imaginery ideocyncracies of the democratically elected governments.  Her style as well as some of the edicts emanating from her office were the main bone of contention.  She never found a government that she liked. She was drawn into untoward criticisms of democratically elected governmemts while letting go of human rights violations of other groups like the LTTE.  Under fire from the United States and several developing countries, for alleged dereliction of duty and reliance on unsubstantiated and dubious sources for some of her decisions, Arbour has decided to quit when her four-year commission ends on June 30, according to foreign news sources. Arbour reportedly did not specify a reason for her decision, and the official announcement of her stepping down is to be made on Friday in a speech to the U.N. Human Rights Council. Arbour was under serious international scrutiny relating to her pronouncements on alleged human rights violations in some countries.   The bull in a china shop encounters are over.

Apparently the sixty one year old Canadian Judge, Arbour, had enough of it and complained that a number of countries were seeking control over her office, which is independent of the 47-nation Council. She was of the view that the members of her council are battling to oversee the managerial decisions taken by her which she said were taken completely within her mandate. She described this situation as a risk and a pushback to the functioning of the Council.

Said one Sri Lankan observer, she was like the proverbial king fisher flying from tree to tree until its beak got caught in a banana tree. Some of her reactions have also angered the administration of President George W. Bush with statements on Israel, on how rights protection should be pursued, and on its "war on terror".  Her decisions may have bordered on infringement of the rights of sovereign states and caused tremendous amounts of protests. U S Administration reportedly felt that Arbour may have exceeded her authority.  The final nail in her coffin came when she countered the US administration.

Protests against her came from all sides.  Zimbabwe's justice minister Patrick Chinamasa told the Council Arbour was guilty of "repeated dereliction of duty" and had turned her office into "a deified oracle which spews out edicts we all must follow," Reuters said on Wednesday (05).   Chinama's strictures echoed less strident criticism at the Council this week from Arab and Asian states, including Egypt and Sri Lanka, who are among a group calling for an "executive committee" to control the commissioner's work, reports added.

Hailed as a Messiah by some peace activitists in Sri Lanka, Arbour was described a nosey bureaucrat by others.  She caucused with opposition leaders many a time and never divulged her sources for making her denouncements of elected governments.  Some called her the arbritary Miss Arbour,  All these countries have at some time or other been criticized, directly or explicitly, on human rights by Arbour, and they complain she has failed to consult the Council before taking decisions. Arbour has also been criticized for depending on dubious sources for statements and allegations that have been described as ‘wild and unsubstantiated'.

Arbour was appointed to her position in 2004 after five years as a justice of the Supreme Court of Canada. She succeeded Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in a 2003 suicide bomb attack on UN offices in Baghdad. Arbour served as chief war crimes prosecutor for the UN in the late 1990s.

Meanwhile, on March 7th, U N Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stated that  "I have been most impressed by her extraordinary courage, energy and  integrity in speaking out forcefully on human rights, which is among the UN's most important mandates," Ban Ki-Moon stated following the  announcement by Arbour.  Ban said that she never hesitated to incur the criticism of States or  other parties by highlighting the victims of abuses or pointing out the

inadequacies of national legal systems, and she consistently represented the  highest ideals of the Organization.

"Her legacy will be one of a strengthened and more wide-ranging United Nations human rights system, a stronger focus on justice and accountability, reformed protection mechanisms, and a more balanced approach to the full  range of civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights," he said.

Arbour, a Canadian Supreme Court Justice and ex-prosecutor of UN war crimes tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, assumed the post of High Commissioner in 2004, after her predecessor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, was killed in a terrorist attack in Baghdad.

To the majority of nations that were at the receiving end of her pronouncements, it was clear that Arbour never bothered to study the historical backdrop of the situation going on in countries like Egypt and Sri Lanka.  The culutural divide was obvious.  She either ignored oe failed to understand the heroic efforts of governments countering terrorism with limited resources.  It was her way or nothing.  It ended abrupy.  We have seen the last of her.