UN Secretary General Kofi Annan strongly defended the Canadian United Nations human rights chief Louise Arbour on Thursday against criticism she had no business second-guessing U.S. practices in pursuing terrorists. In a rare rebuke of a UN envoy, Annan plans to take up the issue as soon as possible with U.S. Ambassador John Bolton. The secretary general, in fact, echoed Arbour's argument that torture must never be used to fight terrorism.Arbour warned Wednesday the global ban on torture is becoming a casualty of the "war on terror," singling out reported U.S. practices of sending terrorist suspects to other countries and holding prisoners in secret detention. Her comments sparked an immediate rebuke from Bolton, who said it was "inappropriate and illegitimate for an international civil servant to second-guess the conduct that we're engaged in in the war on terror, with nothing more as evidence than what she reads in the newspapers."
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric left no doubt about the secretary general's support for Arbour when asked if Annan believed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was out of line for criticizing practices reported used by the United States. Arbour has a mandate from the UN General Assembly "to speak on human rights on a global scale and the secretary general is confident that she will carry out her work without being impressed or intimidated by what happened yesterday," he said.
"The secretary general has absolutely no disagreement with the statement made by the high commissioner...and I think I would reiterate that he has absolute full confidence in Ms. Arbour," Dujarric added. He said Annan decided to raise the issue with Bolton as soon as possible.
Arbour said she chose the theme of "terrorists and torturers" to mark Saturday's annual Human Rights Day commemoration of the UN's adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 because of concerns the absolute ban on torture, once considered unassailable, is under attack. Bolton said it would be far more appropriate if Arbour had used Human Rights Day to talk about "the real human rights problems that exist in the world today." He did not elaborate on the problems but the United States has long criticized Cuba, North Korea, Zimbabwe, Myanmar and others as human rights abusers.
Arbour called on the United States and other countries to state clearly and in detail what practices they accept and don't accept in the interrogation of suspects and whether they operate secret detention centres at home or abroad. She urged U.S. authorities to grant all detainees the right to legal counsel of their choice, "access without impediments or restraints to national courts" and international scrutiny of U.S. facilities including access to detainees.