UN should put landmark rights norms into practice

NEW YORK, Jan 11 (Reuters) Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan initiated ground-breaking human rights concepts that his successor, Ban Ki-moon, should put into practice, Human Rights Watch said today.

In its annual report, the organization said the gap had widened between the world body's human rights aspirations and its ability to act on them.

''Ban should follow Annan's example in using the 'bully pulpit' of the secretary-general's office to take on those responsible for human rights abuses and to push the UN system to be stronger in the defense of human rights,'' the New York-based rights group said.

''Such statements would also make clear to those resisting change within the United Nations that human rights mainstreaming will accelerate,'' the report said.

Annan's most important contribution was the stance that human rights had to be given the same prominence as development and peace and security. His speeches on abuses in Sudan's Darfur region since 2004 was ''crucial to the limited successes the United Nations has achieved in that crisis to date,'' Human Rights Watch said.

Ban, it said, should ''shine a sustained spotlight on the plight of the people of Darfur'' and encourage Arab and African nations to condemn publicly the Sudanese government.

Annan also promulgated the ''responsibility to protect'' civilians when their governments could or would not do it, even if this meant intervention that violated national sovereignty.

The 2005 UN World Summit recognized this concept though little has been done to implement it.

Annan also pushed for a new Human Rights Council to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission but this body has failed to take action on many rights crisis and instead concentrated on Israeli abuses, the report said.

Human Rights Watch said Ban should plan to attend the council's March session in Geneva and ''engage actively with members and other interested government to strengthen this fledgling institution.'' It said Ban should give strong support to Louise Arbour, the UN high commissioner for human rights, and ''defend the independence of her office at all costs.'' Women have been given short-shrift in equality around the world as well as within the UN system, the report said.

The major challenge ''is not standard-setting but rather implementation'' because ''tinkering with current approaches with not remedy the problem.'' The organization again warned that counter-terrorism campaigns posed a direct threat to human rights. ''The suggestion that terrorism creates a perpetual state of emergency in which derogation from basic rights is permitted has already undermined human rights protection worldwide,'' it said.

REUTERS BDP RN2209