Louise Arbour - As Good As The UN Gets?

Joseph Ben-Ami pegs Louise Arbour, and the UN :

"The real problem isn’t that Louise Arbour is a disgrace, it’s that she--and by extension the entire UN human rights bureaucracy--is irrelevant...

In fairness, no declaration of concern, nor statement of condemnation, nor expression of anger or outrage, could ever influence the behaviour of those individuals and regimes that engage in such heinous human rights abuses. As former general, now senator, Romeo Dallaire has noted, mere words did not save a single life in Rwanda, nor are they saving lives in Darfur today.

On the other hand, the impact of statements from officials like Ms. Arbour can deter the advancement of human rights. Consider her “even-handed” scolding of Israel and Hezbollah in 2006. Ms. Arbour was simply wrong to imply that there was no difference between accidental civilian deaths resulting from attacks on military targets undertaken by Israel and those caused by the deliberate and indiscriminate missile attacks of Hezbollah on Israeli towns and cities. In so doing, she undermined the efforts of the international community to isolate and dismantle an international criminal organization that has brought untold suffering to innocent people over the years--the vast majority of whom are Lebanese, not Israeli...

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