Arbour disqualifies herself as rights advocate Attendance at Iranian conference lends credibility to regime By Harold Buchwald September 25, 2007 The Winnipeg Free Press Original Source: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/subscriber/westview/story/4045046p-4652971c.html http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/subscriber/westview/story/4045046p-4652971c.html http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/ips_rich_content/508-a13view.JPG \* MERGEFORMATINET Martial Trezzini / Keystone / Associated Press Canadian Louise Arbour, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, is a monumental disappointment. HAS Louise Arbour disqualified herself from her high office as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights by again giving credibility to the antithesis of human rights advocacy and performance? What possessed Arbour, earlier this month, when she traveled from her headquarters in Geneva to Teheran, and by her presence, and her patronizing comments, gave support to Iran's supremely oppressive regime. Has she turned her back on the UN Human Rights Charter and all that it represents and strives for? Arbour attended what was described as a human rights meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement, currently chaired by Cuba, another paragon of human rights denial. While Arbour was hobnobbing with anti-Semites, butchers and anti-democratic forces from around the world, Iranians were being prepared for public hangings, according to a National Review Online report. Arbour was reported by the Islamic Republic News Agency as having 'expressed pleasure with being at the NAM meeting and described Iran's representative office in the UN in Geneva as very good.' The report continues that the day after Arbour left Iran, the government felt sufficiently buoyed by its UN stamp of approval that (it publicly) executed 21 prisoners. People are given the death penalty in Iran for charges like enmity against God or being corrupt on earth. Iran does not have to fear UN condemnation for its actions because, as Arbour advised the NAM meeting, the Human Rights Council will no longer cite specific countries in its reports, but rather will be comprehensive in considering issues related to human rights and not selective. (The one exception, of course, is Israel which is the only state continually named for alleged human rights violations.) While in Teheran, Arbour was exposed to a vintage Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rant, as he railed against the illegitimacy of Israel's existence, and his usual litany of evils perpetrated by the United States. Iranian delegates reject the notion of a Universal Declaration of Human Rights because the Islamic world wasn't present when it was drafted. The conference challenged the concept of universal human rights standards applicable to all human beings and substituted a different goal -- cultural diversity -- which would recognize the appropriateness of different behaviour in different states. This amounts to a keep out approach to protecting rights, reaffirming... United Nations members... shall refrain from any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a state. All of which makes it astonishing that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights thought she should station herself anywhere in Iran, let alone in the front row of this assault on the raison d'être of her office, thundered Anne Bayefsky in the National Review. Louise Arbour is, of course, an extremely well-credentialed Canadian. A former Osgoode Hall Law School (York University) professor, she has been a member of both the Ontario Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of Canada. She is a former chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals which conducted war crimes trials pertaining to the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, which eminently qualifies her to recognize, disdain and condemn the very approaches being practiced and advocated by Iran, Cuba and their fellow human rights rogue states. From a Canadian perspective, she has to be a monumental disappointment. Canada has long led scrutiny of Iran and its atrocious record of human rights abuses at the UN, particularly its disregard for freedom of speech and fundamental respect for the rule of law and civil liberties. Tensions between the two countries dramatically escalated after the 2003 torture and murder of Zahara Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, in an Iranian prison. Ironically, as this is being written, Iran has launched a frontal attack on Canada as a major abuser of human rights at the current session of the UN General Assembly. It has distributed a 70-page document headed Report on Human Rights Situation in Canada, blasting this country's several breaches and fundamental freedoms of its own people, according to the preface. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! As they say in sports, the best defense is a strong offence. All of this underscores this latest indiscretion on the part of Louise Arbour. Earlier ones include major injudicious behaviour on the ground in Gaza in relation to the Israeli-Palestine dispute. She has effectively disqualified herself to continue as UN Human Rights High Commissioner. Ú hbuchwald@shaw.ca © 2007 Winnipeg Free Press. All Rights Reserved.