(Vatican Radio) Marking the start of a new term of office after her first four years
in the post, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Thursday gave a
sixty-five minutes overview of the Human Rights scene worldwide.The High Commissioner
Navi Pillay spoke of the situation in Syria, where various UN-sponsored efforts to
end the conflict this year have so far failed. Listen to this report from our UN
correspondent in Geneva, Gordon Martin: An Algerian diplomat,
Lakhdar Brahimi, has just taken over as joint UN and Arab league mediator in Syria,
and I asked Navi Pillay if she had any advice for him or hopes of a positive outcome
of his efforts on the human rights front. Navi Pillay, who is herself South African,
said she had been extremely shocked by the killing of 34 protesting miners at the
Marikana platinum mine in South Africa on August 16th. She said Human Rights remained
the poor relation of the international system, and she called on more donors both
gorvernements to come to the rescue. Otherwise, she warned the damage to the UN's
Human Rights operations could be considerable, and the much needed-momentum gained
over the past few years risked being haltered in its tracks.