Candid U.N. Rights Chief Won’t Seek a 2nd Term

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, long a thorn in the side of the major powers for her outspoken views, said Monday that she would not seek another term when her appointment ends in September.

The former Irish president announced her departure in an address to the annual session of the Human Rights Commission.

She declined to comment on suggestions by some rights groups that she had been pushed into the decision by Washington.

In recent months, there had been speculation that Robinson, who has criticized Russia’s military campaign against Muslim separatists in Chechnya and aspects of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, was interested in staying at her post.

Washington was thought to oppose any extension of her mandate after she expressed concern over the number of civilian casualties in U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan and criticized the treatment of Taliban and Al Qaeda prisoners.

Robinson acknowledged that her views were unwelcome to some countries but said she had been guided by advice from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan upon her appointment in 1997. “Stay an outsider within the United Nations,” she quoted him as telling her.

Reed Brody, advocacy director of the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, said Robinson was paying the price for willingness to stand up to Washington, Moscow and Beijing.

The single most dramatic events since she last reported to the commission in March 2001 had been the Sept. 11 terrorism, Robinson said.

She described the attacks as a “crime against humanity” but said the reaction to them also threatened to undermine international standards of human rights.