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The UN's new Universal Periodic Review has made great strides in protecting human rights but still has far to go, departing UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said in her last address at the opening of the Human Rights Council's 8th session on Monday. Despite gains in safeguarding rights, Arbour noted that discrimination against women and ethnic, religious and sexual minorities is still a rampant problem worldwide. She said: "Ultimately, the gross inequalities tolerated among and between States reflect the pervasiveness of entrenched discriminatory views and practices. Discrimination on the basis of race, ethnic origin, color or creed has long been identified as a prevalent and invidious form of exclusion. "We must guard against using criticism of a State or a group of States as a proxy for the expression of hatred against peoples, their origins or beliefs." The UN's senior human rights officer warned against the "pursuit of narrow parochial political agendas" and "manipulative distortions." at the Human Rights Council. This was the "greatest impediment" to the realisation of human rights, Arbour said. Arbour, who stands down as high commissioner for human rights at the end of June, told the 47 elected council members, "Scepticism has not been fully dispelled." The council, set up two years ago to replace the widely discredited Human Rights Commission, needed to be on its guard, she said in assessing its progress so far. Subordinating individual state contributions to regional or group positions "may at times erode the clarity with which members of the council and this body as a whole could and should speak on critical human rights protection issues," she said. The council has been accused of falling into the same trap as its predecessor and of succumbing to the political will of the most powerful groupings. In its two years, the council has censured Israel more than any other state while it has also been charged with paying scant attention to alleged pressing human rights abuses in Darfur and Myanmar. "We must guard against using criticism of a state or a group of states as a proxy for the expression of hatred against peoples, their origins or beliefs," Arbour said. "We must forcefully condemn all those deplorable and manipulative distortions that hide sinister purposes, such as anti-Semitic or Islamophobic agendas, or that convey any other form of intolerance," she said. The council had carried out "significant" reforms nonetheless, she added. Read the full speech by clicking on the attachment above. Read the report from the Human Rights Tribune: "UN sharpens its best human rights tool" Further information
pdf: http://www.crin.org/docs/HRC8 - HC - advance copy.pdf