Peruvian to chair U.N. rights panel
January 16, 2006
CNN
Original Source: http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/01/16/peru.rights.reut/index.html

GENEVA, Switzerland (Reuters) -- A Peruvian diplomat was elected Monday to chair the 2006 session of the United Nations' much-criticized Human Rights Commission and immediately voiced support for its replacement by a more effective body.
The proposed new organ, a Human Rights Council, also was hailed by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour as a way to ensure that violations around the world could be addressed more promptly by the international community.
The Peruvian envoy, Manuel Rodriguez Cuadros, told a session of the commission called to approve the membership of its steering bureau for the year that it was perhaps facing the most decisive moment of its 58-year history.
He said he hoped the process aimed at setting up the council, championed by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, will enhance the human rights protection system and distance it from any kind of political manipulation.
No final decision has yet been made on creation of the council, which unlike the 53-member commission would be in operation throughout the year and whose members would have to be approved by the U.N. General Assembly.
Critics of the commission say the system of having its member-countries effectively appointed by regional groups means serious human rights violators often have seats on it, which they use to protect their own, and allies', record from criticism.
They point to the fact that countries such as Zimbabwe and Sudan have been on the commission and that Libya chaired the body three years ago.
But several developing countries argue that reform agenda is driven by Western powers seeking to impose their own views on rights and on how other nations should be run.
In a short address to the commission meeting Monday, Arbour, a former Canadian High Court judge who has also sat on the U.N. war crimes tribunal, said the council should be able to address human rights violations wherever they may occur.
Arbour also called on all countries in the commission to join with the rest of the international community to ensure that the current reform initiative reaches a satisfactory conclusion as soon as possible.