Inside Geneva: defending human rights – Louise Arbour

Series The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 75, Episode 5:

On Inside Geneva this week we continue our series marking the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Host Imogen Foulkes talks to Louise Arbour, who served as United Nations Human Rights Commissioner from 2004 to 2008. She arrived in Geneva with a formidable track record.

As a prosecutor for the former Yugoslavia, she indicted Slobodan Milosevic for war crimes. In Rwanda, she secured convictions of rape as crimes against humanity.

“The work I did both with the tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda were if anything a vindication for me of the significance of law, of the rule of law, as an organising principle in modern society,” explains Arbour. 

Leading the UN’s human rights work was a new challenge. 

“These were very challenging times. 2004, you know, this was in the backyard of 9/11. It was, a new, dangerous, unknown world was starting to unfold with a lot of uncertainties, including on the human rights front.”

New strategies were needed. 

“When you arrive in the role of high commissioner for human rights, I think that’s part of the dilemma; how do you use your voice?  Because I think to be the megaphone for the denunciation of injustices at some point becomes counterproductive, because it just illuminates how impotent the system is. It’s like you scream in the wilderness,” she said. 

That’s why this dedicated lawyer still tells us to follow the laws, treaties, and conventions we have. 

“If you came from another planet and you just looked at the human rights framework; the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all the treaties, the conventions, the work of the treaty bodies, you’d think you’d arrived in heaven. So why is it not the case?”

Join Imogen Foulkes on Inside Geneva podcast to find out more. 

For more insights and discussions from SwitzerlUand’s international city, subscribe to Inside Geneva on Apple PodcastsExternal link, SpotifyExternal link, or wherever you get your podcasts. And subscribe to our newsletter to get all the International Geneva news and views from Imogen Foulkes in your inbox:

For more audio content from SWI swissinfo.ch, explore The Swiss Connection, a podcast with Swiss stories for the world.

Series The Universal Declaration of Human Rights at 75

• Episode 1: 1. How the Universal Declaration of Human Rights aimed to change the world
• Episode 2: 2. Inside Geneva: universal human rights at 75. Who defends them?
• Episode 3: 3. The challenge of probing ‘horrific’ rights abuses from Russia to South Sudan
• Episode 4: 4. Inside Geneva: human rights and those who defend them – Mary Robinson
• Episode 5: 5. Inside Geneva: defending human rights – Louise Arbour