Rights groups urge UN's Ban to boost genocide post

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 14 (Reuters) UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon must renew and strengthen a genocide-prevention envoy's post when it expires at the end of next month, top rights groups said today.

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Institute for Global Policy told Ban in a letter they fear the position of the UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide would lose clout if it were merged with another UN role.

''This has been a very important post,'' said Yvonne Terlingen, Amnesty International's UN representative.

''Without its existence there would not have been this concern about genocide and the prevention of genocide that we're seeing today.

''The mandate is so important there should not be a conflict of interest with any other post and therefore it should not be merged with any other mandates or functions within the secretariat,'' she told a news conference.

The job is currently held by Argentine Juan Mendez, who was appointed when the post was created in July 2004 by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan. His mandate expires on March 31.

It was unclear if Ban, who became chief of the world body on Jan. 1, was considering merging the role with another post.

Ban's spokeswoman Michele Montas told reporters the secretary-general had never intended to diminish the responsibility of the envoy.

''On the contrary he wants to reinforce that post,'' Montas said, adding that Ban plans to upgrade it from a part-time role to a more permanent post when Mendez steps down.

''When Mr. Mendez leaves the post he will be certainly replaced by another person who will take on the responsibility of the position,'' she said.

The rights groups said Mendez's replacement needed to be independent, authoritative and a recognized expert in human rights in order to give the post the credibility needed to influence governments.

They also said the post needed to have good access to the secretary-general and the UN Security Council to warn them of possible mass human rights violations.

''You can't start bundling this together with anything else.

I hope nobody would be thinking of doing that,'' said Steve Crawshaw, the UN representative for Human Rights Watch.

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