OXFORD, UK, Nov 12 (LSN) – Mary Robinson, the UN’s new High Commissioner for Human Rights, vowed yesterday to put an end to ‘‘discrimination,’’ and added that she would be writing to all governments to support her work. In a speech given at Oxford University, Robinson criticized the UN’s work thus far, saying that despite billions of dollars spent, governments have failed to protect ‘‘human rights’’ ‘‘on a scale that shames us all’‘.
She said: ‘‘We still have widespread discrimination on the basis of gender, ethnicity, religious belief and sexual orientation…My responsibility as UN High Commissioner is…specifically to include women’s rights as human rights, as we were reminded by the Beijing conference.’‘
Robinson referred to these new ‘‘rights’’ as ‘‘current complex human rights’’ and the need for committment to the ‘‘furtherance of these and other rights’‘. She noted that in the debate which is to commemmorate the 50th anniversary of the UN Declaration on Human Rights in 1998, ‘‘the challenge will be to engender a similar commitment to a shared vision that these (new) rights are encompassed in the opening words of the preamble to the Universal Declaration…and that they form part of a renewal in our time of that vision’‘.
Robinson concluded her remarks indicating that implementation of these new ‘‘human rights’’ must be undertaken with ‘‘international action’‘. She noted that ‘‘some solutions might be found in the application of international law, in references to international human rights standards… international law (is) a normative system, harnessed to the achievement of common values – values that speak to us all, whether we are rich or poor, black or white, of any religion or none, or come from countries that are industrialised or developing. The normative work is largely done. The international human rights standards are in place. The task for us all, given new impetus by the focus of next year, will be to implement them. And to implement them in a ‘Rights’ based way’‘.
The central goal of the international anti-life movement is to gain recognition of abortion as a ‘‘human right.’’ Linked to this is the slogan ‘‘women’s rights are human rights.’’ Robinson’s remarks seem to affirm what pro-lifers have feared for some time: that the 50th anniversary celebration of the Declaration of Human Rights will be used to achieve these anti-life goals, and enforce these new ‘‘rights’’ by the extension of new powers to the international court.