Judge Arbour: In the shoes of Mary Robinson
By Suhas Chakma

Director, Asian Centre for Human Rights The confirmation of the nomination of Judge Louise Arbour, former Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda and currently a Supreme Court justice in Canada by the United Nations General Assembly on 25 February 2004 as the next United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has been widely welcomed by human rights community across the world. After the assassination of Sergio Vieira de Mello in the August 19th, 2003 bombing of United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, Secretary General Kofi Annan has been hunting for a successor.
Arbour and the war crimes tribunals' first chief prosecutor, Richard Goldstone, both reportedly turned down the High Commissioner's post in November 2003. But Arbour was eventually persuaded and the Secretary General Kofi Annan could not have possibly nominated a better candidate than Judge Arbour to fit into the shoes of former High Commissioner, Mary Robinson. Although, de Mello succeeded Robinson in September 2002, he was killed before he could leave his own mark as the High Commissioner.
Mary Robinson is a hard act to follow. Her predecessor, Jose Ayala Lasso had a lackluster term, dispensed diplomacy more appropriate to hosting cocktail parties than to confronting mass atrocities that were perpetrated across the world. Robinson transformed the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights into a bully pulpit from which not only the usual suspects like Libya, Cuba and Iraq but also China, Russia, Israel and the United States felt the astringent lash of her plain speech on their respective human rights abuses. She became the most well-known face of the United Nations after the Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Mary Robinson didn't shrink from castigating NATO for inflicting civilian-targeted cluster bombs on Serbia. In her early days at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Robinson aggressively pushed the definition of human rights beyond the civil liberties and freedom of speech model favored by the West to encompass the right to food, basic shelter, education and health care, as well as workers' rights and cultural rights. Yet, it was the issue of protection of civil liberties in the aftermath of the September 11th that brought her to prominence and also cost the job.
"Suddenly the T-word is used all the time," Robinson said, referring to terrorism in the post September 11th period. "And that's the problem.....Everything is justified by that T-word,_I hope that countries will put human rights back on the agenda because it tended to slip after September 11th".
Although the Clinton administration strongly supported Robinson's nomination and pressed hard for her appointment, she earned the annoyance of the Bush administration: certainly not for her anti-American stand but for being the goal-keeper of international human rights standards. She called for a halt to bombing in Afghanistan to allow humanitarian aid reach civilians, an inquiry into the massacre of the Taliban soldiers in Mazar-e-Sharif and questioned the legality concerning the detention and trial of the Al-Qaeda prisoners in Guantanamo Bay. She also openly criticised Washington's opposition to the International Criminal Court. On 19 March 2001, Mary Robinson made a surprise announcement that she would not seek a second term citing the lack of resources, a mere US$21 million, less than 2 per cent of the UN regular budget, as the "main constraint". Secretary General Kofi Annan convinced her to stay another year. Although, Ms Robinson later let it be known she was willing to remain in office until 2005, her term was not extended due to the pressure of the United States. The United States' displeasure was apparent from the statement of US State Department spokesman, Richard Boucher: "We wish her well in her future endeavors," when asked by reporters for Washington's reaction to Mary Robinson's decision not to seek the second term.
The appointment of Judge Arbour is a much needed course correction for the post of High Commissioner, which has been described by De Mello as "political minefield". Judge Arbour gained international prominence as the second chief prosecutor of the tribunals trying the main perpetrators of the 1994 Rwanda genocide and the massive violations of humanitarian laws in the former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. During her three years as prosecutor from October 1996 until September 1999, she issued indictments for crimes against humanity against former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, who is currently on trial, and other leading Serb and Yugoslav officials. The state of human rights left by Mary Robinson remains the same if not worse. Indigenous peoples and minorities continue to suffer serious human rights violations. The human rights situations in Chechnya, Tibet, Xinjiang, the occupied Arab territories of West Bank and Gaza, Democratic Republic of Congo etc remain deplorable. The prisoners of Guantamo Bay continue to be detained without any trial or clarity about their status. Governments across the world have got a license to resort to law of the jungle in the name of combating terror. Worse, the occupying forces in Iraq have been accused of serious human rights violations.
As former Prosecutor of War Crimes Tribunals, she is likely to push for International Criminal Court, much to the chagrin of the US. Those who advocate violation of the rule of law or advocate dispensation of due process of law in the war against terror are unlikely to be taking any pleasure in the appointment of Judge Arbour whose passion for justice is widely recognised.[Asian Centre for Human Rights]