UN under attack again
From Fazle Rashid | Thursday, 12 June 2008
NEW YORK, June 11: The United Nations is under attack again. This time for employing subterfuge method to appoint the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Human Rights watchdogs and diplomats have accused that the procedure followed to appoint the High Commissioner for Human Rights lack accountability and transparency This is one of the high profile and delicate job in the UN.
A watchdog executive in a frontal attack said ' the top appointments in the UN system are often made in the backroom behind closed doors where candidates who meet the lowest common denominator win'. There is a hue and cry for transparency and accountability in UN system. Nothing tangible has yet taken place.
The UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon had circulated an office order in March this year divulging that the search for all top UN positions would be open and would require recommendations of the government of the country from where the candidate will come The previous secretary general Kofi Anan made it a practice to notify a short list of the candidates for top UN positions.
The names in circulation for the position of the high commissioner for human rights are N.Pillay , a South African judge in the International Court of Justice, Louis Alfonso, a Geneva based UN diplomat from Mexico and Francis Deng, a Sudanese professor of international law. The blame for shody methods of appointment cannot entirely be apportioned on Ban Ki-moon. The major donor nations want to fix the deal behind the scenes. Diplomats said that keeping the process largely under wraps was a form of insurance against excessive lobbying by a member state, a columnist wrote.
The UN officials stoutly denied that the process followed was not transparent. The spokesperson for the UN secretary general said we will disclose more details about it when we are nearer to reaching a decision. Louise Arbour, the Canadian lawyer who is quiting her Geneva-based human rights position has been applauded for being outspoken and forthright. She came face to face with the Bush administration saying human rights should not take a backseat in the campaign against terrorism.
Everyone is demanding that the new high commissioner for human rights should be fearless. The ' concern is that there will be someone who wont ruffle feathers'.
A watchdog executive in a frontal attack said ' the top appointments in the UN system are often made in the backroom behind closed doors where candidates who meet the lowest common denominator win'. There is a hue and cry for transparency and accountability in UN system. Nothing tangible has yet taken place.
The UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon had circulated an office order in March this year divulging that the search for all top UN positions would be open and would require recommendations of the government of the country from where the candidate will come The previous secretary general Kofi Anan made it a practice to notify a short list of the candidates for top UN positions.
The names in circulation for the position of the high commissioner for human rights are N.Pillay , a South African judge in the International Court of Justice, Louis Alfonso, a Geneva based UN diplomat from Mexico and Francis Deng, a Sudanese professor of international law. The blame for shody methods of appointment cannot entirely be apportioned on Ban Ki-moon. The major donor nations want to fix the deal behind the scenes. Diplomats said that keeping the process largely under wraps was a form of insurance against excessive lobbying by a member state, a columnist wrote.
The UN officials stoutly denied that the process followed was not transparent. The spokesperson for the UN secretary general said we will disclose more details about it when we are nearer to reaching a decision. Louise Arbour, the Canadian lawyer who is quiting her Geneva-based human rights position has been applauded for being outspoken and forthright. She came face to face with the Bush administration saying human rights should not take a backseat in the campaign against terrorism.
Everyone is demanding that the new high commissioner for human rights should be fearless. The ' concern is that there will be someone who wont ruffle feathers'.