UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, left, shakes hands with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon prior to the opening session of the 7th UN Human Rights Council at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland on Monday, March 3, 2008. (AP / Keystone, Salvatore Di Nolfi). Canada's Arbour to step down from post at UN
CTV.ca News, March 7, 2008:
The United Nations' high commissioner for human rights, a Canadian, is stepping down from her position after just one term.
Louise Arbour announced on Friday in the UN Human Rights Council that she will be finishing up her duties on June 30 when her four-year term is complete.
Arbour made the decision "essentially for personal reasons," her spokesperson Rupert Colville told CTV's Canada AM.
"She's spent very long periods away from home, away from her family, not just during the last four years as high commissioner of human rights, but prior to that when she was chief prosecutor in The Hague," Colville said.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour speaks on the opening day of a Human Rights Council session in Geneva on March 10. Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images"She says she doesn't want to commit to spending another four years so far away from her family."
Arbour, 61, has been the target of frequent criticism, though that is not unusual for those in the high profile position.
Colville said the role of human rights boss for the UN is one of the toughest jobs within the organization, because "human rights penetrate right to the heart of state sovereignty, so states are very sensitive about it."
However, he said: "It hasn't played a part in her decision not to continue. In fact, she said she had to resist the temptation to stay on and fight the criticism, she's that kind of person."
Colville said he asked his boss what she plans to do after leaving her position and was told she has nothing lined up at present and needs a long holiday.
But he said Arbour isn't the type to stay idle for long.
© 2008 CTVglobemedia
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Lower-intensity discrimination against women persists
By Louise Arbour
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, New York
Japan Times, Tokyo, March 11, 2008:
International Women's Day was celebrated March 8. Although progress has been made in achieving women's rights everywhere, we should not lose sight of the fact that widespread discrimination against women persists in law and practice, directly or indirectly, all over the world.
Public outcry and headlines tend to concentrate on egregious cases of female genital mutilation, punishment of rape victims, sexual slavery and degrading treatment of all sorts. But it is "lower-intensity" discrimination, often sanctioned by law, that condemns millions of women to daily hardship and suffering. Beyond sparse and mainly ritual condemnations, such pervasive conditions continue to fly below the international radar.
A recent United Nations-commissioned study underscores that this occurs despite the fact that the rights of women to equality and nondiscrimination are enshrined in a number of international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the U.N. Charter and, most extensively, in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
Under this normative canvass, which is complemented by regional human rights treaties and national legislation, states have the obligation to enact and implement effective measures to promote and protect the rights of women, including repealing discriminatory laws.
One hundred and eighty-five nations have accepted CEDAW, suggesting almost universal endorsement of its norms. However, the persistence of laws and customs that make women second-class citizens or expose them to abuse paints a different picture.
It is telling that many states have taken full advantage of their right to enter reservations to CEDAW, which allow them under international law to withhold consent or postpone adoption of specific treaty provisions. Among human rights treaties, CEDAW has been one of those subjected to the largest number of reservations, although this attitude is now changing.
Not surprisingly, most misgivings of states revolve around control of the private life of women. A key aspect of women's legal disenfranchisement in many countries is the limitation placed on their ability to own or manage property, and their lack of entitlements to property, including inheritance, following divorce or the death of kin.
Many states still grant nationality and citizenship of children exclusively through the male line. Women's freedom of movement is hindered in some states by laws that require male guardianship. A dearth of legal protection or lack of law enforcement often allows violence against women and girls, including rape, to go unpunished.
The reality check at the regional level is also far from reassuring. Although some regional normative frameworks have built and expanded on CEDAW standards, both the interpretation of these standards and their application at the national level leave serious protection gaps.
Latin America has introduced some of the most progressive and pioneering regional legislation for the protection of women, including in 1994 the first ever human rights convention focusing on violence against women. Yet 10 years after the adoption of the convention, Amnesty International noted that the situation of women in the region had not improved significantly because parties were failing to fulfill their duties under this treaty.
In Africa, despite widespread ratification of the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa, which pledge protection for the whole spectrum of women's rights, discrimination and harmful practices, such as human trafficking, violence in armed conflict, and female genital mutilation, persist.
Asia, the largest and most populous continent is the most diverse with regard to progress on women's rights. The region counts some vibrant National Women's Commissions. Recently enacted legislation has advanced women's rights in India and elsewhere. However, much ground remains to be covered in terms of implementation and even formulation of laws in key areas, including human trafficking.
An extensive regional human rights regime and regional and national jurisprudence has not made Europe immune from many of the inequalities that hold women back. The Equal Opportunities Commission in Britain has noted that, at the current rate of progress, it will take 200 years before Parliament has equal representation of men and women.
Even Norway, which has consistently topped the U.N. human rights development and gender indices, registers gaps in remuneration and access to employment between the sexes.
Clearly, the conditions of oppression and lack of voice and opportunity are as much a part of the discrimination that women experience as are the laws that hamper the enjoyment of their rights. The combination of these incapacitating factors accounts for the fact that 70 percent of the world's poor are women; that two out of three children not in school are girls; and that women own only 1 percent of the world's titled land.
Real equality demands that international obligations be upheld both in law and in practice. At a minimum, states should review, amend or repeal discriminatory legislation, and address the negative effects that these laws have on women.
Without such political initiative, as well as dedicated financial resources, much needed and long overdue change will not happen. Governments must tangibly show their determination to empower more than half of the world's population, and thus enable women to claim and enjoy their human rights and contribute to the welfare of all.
Copyright(C) 2008 The Japan Times
