With
Pillay 2d Term
In Doubt,
Simonovic
Lurks,
Activists
Wonder on
Jilani
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
May 10 -- As
UN High
Commissioner
on Human
Rights Navi
Pillay's first
and maybe only
term comes to
an end, now
names of
possible
replacements
have begun to
circulate.
Back
on March 26,
Inner City
Press first
covered this,
quoting a
self-described
Western
diplomat that
"in all the
senior jobs we
think there
should be a
special
process. I
think we need
to look if
there are
other
candidates who
might want to
apply for that
job. I
don't know if
she
[Pillay] wants
to run again,
or if the S-G
wants her to
run again."
Now a name is
circulating,
someone that
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon and
apparently the
Americans are
comfortable
with, unlike
many human
rights
activists:
Ivan
Simonovic.
When he was
named
as Pillay's
New York based
deputy, Simonovic's
previous
service to
Franjo Tudman
was raised,
click here
for Inner City
Press' story.
Since he's had
the post, he's
been less than
accessible, soft on Sudan
and the victors
in Cote
d'Ivoire
and somewhat
"joyless" as
one reporter
called him,
adding that
Simonovic is
"not in any
way associated
with criticism
of
Israel."
And could that
be
the point?
Actual human
rights
activist
suggest other
names, like
while not
necessarily
realistic,
Hina Jilani,
who has
been a UN
representative
on Human
Rights
Defenders.
They note a
series
of "old names"
in the mixed,
ranging from
Sergio
Pinheiro
the lead
speaker on the
panel on
Syria, Juan
Mendez and
even Francis
Deng, who
wrote his own
books while on
UN time as the
expert in the
prevention of
genocide.
Watch this
site.
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