UNITED NATIONS, July 30: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said on Friday that the creation of a human rights council was critical to advancing the cause, especially in view of the international community’s poor record when it came to implementing its established standards.
“On the implementation side the commission has performed extremely poorly, leading to a perception of using double standards and being very politically driven…I believe that this perception can only be properly addressed by a fundamental change in attitude that can only be triggered by a profound institutional change,” Ms Arbour said.
Speaking to reporters during a press briefing at UN Headquarters in New York, Ms Arbour said that she had held discussions during her stay in New York with various stakeholders concerning the launching of human rights council, hopefully at the time of the September summit.
“All the great human rights instruments that we have originated are the work of this commission. In recent years though I think the importance has shifted from this normative mission to a mission of implementing the norms that we have that are very well understood, virtually universally accepted, but extremely poorly implemented,” Ms. Arbour said.
