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A voice of reason in the UN.

Interesting article at the top of the stack on Google News in the World Press Review, by Sergio Vieira de Mello, the United Nations’ former High Commissioner for Human Rights, entitled “Making the United Nations Function.” An excerpt:

A sign of the political failure of our time, such episodes show the lack of understanding that flagrant and systematic violations of human rights represent a grave threat to international security and that there is a crying need to reach consensus about exactly how to respond to this type of risk. Reflecting upon the tragic consequences that 24 years of tyranny and international negligence have bequeathed to Iraq, we see that the price of our chronic political failure has been, and will continue to be, high.

I say former High Commissioner, because he died back in August, the victim of a suicide bombing in Iraq. I remember reading the headlines back then, but I didn’t know anything about him. Now, reading this article he wrote, I’m saddened. From what I can tell, the UN badly needs a loud, clear voice calling for change and reform. Was anybody listening to him? Is anybody listening to him now? Picking up the torch?

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