The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Canadian jurist Louise Arbour, said on Friday she will step down when her current term in office expires on June 30.
”It is very much for personal reasons. I’m not prepared to make this commitment for another four years,” said Arbour in Geneva where she presented her annual report to the UN Human Rights Council.
”I have informed the Secretary General [Ban Ki-moon] that I will not seek a second term when my mandate expires at the end of June 2008,” she told the council.
Arbour (61), a former chief prosecutor of the UN war-crimes tribunal in The Hague, has been at odds with several UN member states, notably in the developing world, for her tough stance on their human rights records.
She denied her move was prompted by criticism from any country, despite ruffling many feathers in her four years in office.
”It would be surprising or unimaginable to do this work for four years and to depart with unanimous accolades from all players; you would have to wonder about the quality of work,” she said.
Arbour became internationally known when she was named in 1996 to the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, where she notably indicted former Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic. — AFP
