A voice for human rights

When human rights lawyer Mary Robinson was elected president of Ireland in 1990, she inherited a ceremonial post with virtually no budget or staff. Yet through her forceful speeches on human rights, civil rights and feminist issues, and by opening her official residence to groups such as the homeless, she redefined the office and helped modernize the country.

This experience should serve her well as UN high commissioner for human rights, a job she began last month. She will manage a network of special representatives and rapporteurs, who visit countries with human rights problems or study issues like torture and report back to the United Nations. She also will supervise about ten field offices that monitor human rights abuses and provide assistance to governments and private groups.

But the only weapons these offices can use to protect human rights are public exposure and UN condemnation. In short, the high commissioner's authority is mainly moral.

The job's first and only other occupant, Jose Ayala-Lasso, wasted this authority. Mr. Ayala-Lasso, who is now Ecuador's foreign minister, was too much the diplomat. Under pressure from member governments that use the United Nations for patronage jobs, he hired many uninspiring staffers. He was too reticent to criticize governments' human rights abuses, even in private meetings. The world can expect better from Mrs. Robinson.

Mrs. Robinson will need to clean out unprofessional staff and bad management practices. Field offices must focus on human rights rather than diluting their missions. More emphasis should go to building local organizations that can monitor and champion human rights. The Cambodian field office has done this, and should be a model for other offices.

She must work with the United Nations to ensure that human rights concerns are not slighted in its political and peace missions. Mrs. Robinson's more public challenge is to be a consistent defender of human rights while maintaining credibility with governments that violate human rights. There is always a temptation when facing pressure from abusive governments and the United Nations' own diplomatic culture to placate balky regimes at the expense of human rights.

-- The New York Times