UN Mary's uncompromising conception of rights

As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the ex-president of Ireland has drawn fire, mostly from Americans, for her blunt statements about the growing new restrictions on civil and human rights in the global fight against terrorism.

These restrictions, including racial profiling, are not merely in the US but are part of new laws being promulgated or in the process of being promulgated in countries such as the UK, Canada and Germany_ all of them vigorous advocates of civil liberties.

Appointed High Commissioner in June 1997, Robinson announced plans to quit at the end of her four-year term this year. But Secretary-General Kofi Annan prevailed on her urging her to stay on until September 2002. 

At a time when some critics have described the United Nations as an extension of the US State Department, Robinson has bucked the trend by raising her voice against the erosion of civil liberties in the US and other Western democracies.

She has apparently been cautioned to desist from rocking the boat. But despite these warnings, Robinson has continued to express her concerns in public_ a rare trait among senior UN officials.

Robinson obviously feels she has nothing to lose because she doesn't have to keep any of the big powers happy _ or for that matter even Annan _ as a quid pro quo for an extension of her term of office.

Last month, she was a signatory to a joint statement in which the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, along with the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), warned governments against violating civil and human rights in their rush to fight terrorism.

But US Ambassador John Negroponte didn't sound happy about Robinson's role in supporting the joint statement.

"As far as what we do to respond to these terrorist attacks," said Negroponte, "I just am totally convinced that whatever we do is going to be completely consistent with our political and historial values."

"I don't have any concern in that regard, and I don't think Mary Robinson should have any concern either," he added.

Robinson has pointed out that some governments, mostly Western democracies, have argued that human rights considerations must take a back seat in the struggle against terrorism.

"But I cannot share that line of thinking," she said, adding that human rights must be observed, especially in times of crises.

The new restrictions on civil liberties _ including detention without trial, wire tapping and visa crackdown _ are being enforced mostly in countries such as the United States, Britain, Canada and Germany, as part of the ongoing war against terrorism.

Since the terrorist attacks on September 11, law enforcement agencies in the United States have held without trial more than 1,200 persons, mostly Arab Americans.

Robinson is also the only senior UN official who has publicly urged the US and Britain for an investigation into the killings of hundreds of Taliban prisoners in Mazar-i-Sharif in Afghanistan last month.

The New York Times reported that dozens of Taliban prisoners have died after surrendering to Northern Alliance forces. They have been mostly asphyxiated in shipping containers which were used to transport them to prison. The number of prisoners who died for lack of air has been estimated at between 43 to 100.

Fred Eckhard, spokesman for the Secretary-General, said there were no plans by the United Nations to investigate the killings of prisoners.

"No, we were not there at the time. We have no witnesses. The latest thing we have on that is the statement by Mary Robinson when she said that investigations should be conducted so that we know exactly what happened," he said.

Early this month, the UN commemmorated Human Rights Day with a strong statement on fundamental freedoms by 17 independent experts of the UN Commission on Human Rights. These experts included Louis Joinet, Chairman-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, Radhika Coomaraswamy, Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Asma Jahangir, Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary and Aritbrary Executions and Theo van Boven, Special Rapporteur on Torture.

"We express our deep concern over the adoption or contemplation of anti-terrorist and national security legislation and other measures that may infringe upon the enjoyment for all of human rights and fundamental freedoms," the joint statement said.

The experts also said: "We deplore human rights violations and measures that have particularly targeted groups such as human rights defenders, migrants, asylum-seekers and refugees, religious and ethnic minorities, political activists and the media."

The fight against terrorism must not result in violations of human rights, as guaranteed under international law, they asserted.