OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada’s commitment to human rights is slipping and the country must work hard to regain the position it once held as an international honest broker, a top United Nations official said on Monday.
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, who is Canadian, said she was particularly unhappy that Canada had voted against a nonbinding U.N. declaration of rights for indigenous peoples last month.
Her comments were aimed at the Conservative government, which took power in February 2006 and has shown less interest in multilateral diplomacy than its Liberal predecessor.
Arbour said Canada had historically been perceived as an unbiased nation whose judgment was widely sought and which did not serve narrow interests.
“I am very worried that this very romantic view that we have of ourselves is not being sufficiently nourished and preserved to allow us to continue to occupy a place much larger than the one that our single voice among 192 member states of the United Nations would otherwise allow for,” she said.
“I hope that we … will collectively work very hard to reclaim that privileged space,” she told an Ottawa conference on human rights.
Oh…THIS Louise Arbour?
Let’s see…condemnation of Canada, silence on Iran. This Iran:
Let me spend a few moments highlighting some of the most recent atrocities. In a recent period of less than 30 days, some 31 executions were carried out and 8 women were awaiting execution by stoning. And in Gohardasht prison alone, some 612 individuals were in death row.
Now you might think that litany of horrors couldn’t be surpassed but you would be wrong. Iran remains the only country in the world that continues to execute children and International human rights organizations have indicated a short time ago that 71 minors were incarcerated under the sentence of death.
Could this woman sink any lower?
1 comment:
any lower? perhaps lower than well, google rumsfeld and saddam and you'll get the picture.
Oh right you support that.
Post a Comment