US forced me out of UN job, says Robinson

OUTGOING United Nations human rights chief Mary Robinson says she was ready to stay at her post to face mounting threats to rights around the world, but Washington wanted her out of the job.

The outspoken Mrs Robinson, who makes way for Brazilian United Nations veteran Sergio Vieira de Mello in September, said yesterday that things had changed since she told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in early 2001 that she wanted to stay for just one more year.

“It has become much more difficult for human rights. I am not somebody to just walk away,” she said.

“If I had been hard-pressed, I would have stayed, but there seems to have been strong resistance from just one country.”

The choice of High Commissioner for Human Rights falls to the UN Secretary-General, but filling of such a sensitive post involves sounding out the major powers.

Mrs Robinson, only the second holder of the job created in 1994, crossed swords with Russia over Chechnya and with the Chinese over Tibet and other issues, but she clearly feels that she fell victim to the fallout from September 11.

Echoing human rights activists, Mrs Robinson criticised Washington’s refusal to grant prisoner of war status to Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners from Afghanistan being held at the Guantanamo US military base in Cuba. She expressed strong concerns about the possible use of US military tribunals to try those accused of involvement in the suicide plane attacks on New York and Washington, as well as the lengthy detention without trial of potential suspects.

“I do appreciate that the United States was very traumatised by the attacks of September 11 and geared itself for a situation of being at war.

“That meant that it did not put the same emphasis on human rights standards, and it was my job to say that human rights standards apply even more at times like that,” she said. Washington took a leading role in ensuring respect for human rights was a pillar of the United Nations and in setting up the Geneva-based Human Rights Commission, Mrs Robinson said.

That was why certain moves by the US authorities since September 11 were worrying.

“I believe that the emphasis has been on the war on terrorism and that there has been a blurring of the edges and a lack of precision.

“A lack of precision means a lack of protection,” she said.

“Even in Afghanistan, the United States should be doing more to use its influence to ensure that prisoners held by victorious anti-Taliban forces were being treated decently, Mrs Robinson added.

Despite the political flack she took, Mrs Robinson said she was confident that she had strengthened the job of UN High Commissioner during her five years.

“When I came in, it was very worrying to see how demoralised and lacking in resources and lacking in a sense of vision the office was,” she said.

Former Irish President Mrs Robinson, a law professor, took over from Ecuador’s Jose Ayala-Lasso who left in 1997 under a hail of criticism from human rights organisations, who accused him of failing to speak out about abuse. “The role is to listen to the victims of abuse, to verify what is being said and then speak out for those victims,” Ms Robinson said.