UN Arab Charter on Human Rights: SWC and UN Human Rights Head Exchange Correspondence

Dear Louise,

I feel that I can address you on a personal level, given our somewhat conjoinedbackgrounds:

I was also born in 1947, I too lived in Montreal. We both have a link to Osgoode Hall Law School, whichI attended and where I am an adjunct professor, just as you taught there. We worked together at the first-ever International Criminal Court seminar in Canada in January,2002. And, a couple of years ago, we met in Geneva to discuss issues pertaining to the recent Lebanon-Israel war and the "new" UN Human Rights Council.

We have a common background in criminal law, with an emphasison human rights. Me as a practicing lawyer and now as Director of National Affairs of the NGO Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, and you as a judgewho worked her way up to the Supreme Court of Canada.

We understand the need for democratic values to be strengthened andthe necessity of democracies to be vigilant against terrorism's inroads. I was honoured to be appointed to the Cross Cultural Roundtable on National Security, while youhad the distinction of being a prosecutor in the Criminal Tribunals charged with bringing the world's worst offenders to justice.

Why do I go into such detail? Because I and countless other of youradmirers are now former admirers.

We are profoundly disappointed by the positions that you have takenvis-a-vis Israel and, more recently, with regards to the Arab Charter on Human Rights and its proclamation of "Zionism as a form of racism........(to be) condemned andefforts must be deployed for their elimination."

You are quoted in the media as claiming that this Charter is animportant step towards a regional system of promoting and strengthening human rights. Yet this is a region awash with countries which proudly proclaim their Arab andIslamic character, while being absolutely opposed to Jews (in this case) having equal nation-status rights in the region.

To these States, human rights is a joke and a toy to be played withto obtain the Western world's largesse. To them, peace treaty or no peace treaty, Israel-bashing, based upon the premise that Jews are not entitled to their own homeland,is an established ethos which has led to over 100 years of Jew-baiting, murder, warfare and acts of terrorism.

Most sinister is the Charter's call for the elimination of Zionism.And let there be no mistake or misunderstanding of what these States ultimately mean when they say what they say about Zionism. They mean the eradication of a democratic,Jewish State which is home to more than Jews. It means the end of the Zionist dream which had its modern start when the journalist Theodore Herzl witnessed virulentantisemitism coming from "civoilized" Frenchmen purportedly dedicated to liberty, equality and fraternity, during the Dreyfus Affair. It means the continuation of whatWinston Churchill called "this horrific crime that has no name." The crime that we now call the Holocaust. It may even mean war, as has happened several times. Itcertainly means further acts of terrorism, as is now occurring.

The Charter's preamble, repeated in article 2, is an exact echo ofthe odious, ill-advised and now discredited "Zionism is racism" UN resolution, proferred and championed by the same Arab nations as are behind this Charter. Did youapprove of that resolution too? Be honest, tell us if you did. Don't hide behind the rhetoric of legalese mumbo jumbo. Come out of the closet and let us see you for whatyou realluy are.

But, if you don't believe that Zionism (the Jewish aspiration to aNational Homeland) is racism and if you don't believe that Zionism should be eliminated, because the Jews, like the Arabs and the Muslems, like the English and the French,like the Italians and the Chinese, like everyone everywhere, have a right to a homeland of their own, then please say so and let us see if you are still the champion ofjustice. .

To have someone of your background and stature applaud the ArabCharter's out and out racism is profoundly disappointing, disheartening, embarrassing and perplexing. Those of us who know you and your past works are aghast. We imploreyou to speak out against this terrible document which does nothjing to advance human rights or peace in the Middle East. We beg you to be a true champion of humanrights.

You see, I still want to believe in the Louise Arbour that I amconjoined with.

LeoAdler
Director of NationalAffairs
Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies
Toronto, Canada

Dear Leo,

I am presently travelling and responding to you briefly from my Blackberry. I hope that we will have anoccasion to talk about these issues at greater lenght in the near future.

I urge you to look on OHCHR wbsite at the statement I issued earlier this week on the UN day ofHolocaust remembrance, which I hope will dissipate any fear you may have that I tolerate anti-semitism in any of its forms.

I also ask you to look at the statement we issued yesterday to expand on our earlier statement on theArab Charter. It would have been vastly preferable to have this second statement part of the original one, or may be to have said nothing. Large organisations do notalways work to the standards of perfection that we all wish they would.

I'm sure you can appreciate that we deal on a day to day basis with a lot of challenging issues,presently Kenya amongst others.

I'm not making excuses even less looking for admirers.

I hope we can talk about this and other issues related to our common pursuit of justice and human rightsfor all.

Sincerely,

Louise

Dear Louise,

Thank you for your letter.

I appreciate that you wanted to say more and that we should talk. I am certainly prepared to do that inGeneva at a time of your choosing. However, let me be blunt.

I understand that organizations, large and small, do occasionally, as you said: "not work to thestandards of perfection that we all wish they would." I also don't doubt that you have a very heavy daily load, such as Kenya today.

The problem is that these "lapses" mainly seem to involve Israel. The UNHRC appears to be obsessed onlywith Israel, as you admitted to me in Geneva.

Louise, you are the world's chief human rights officer. You are the lightning rod which nations andleaders look to. Your obligation is to be a catalyst for positive change. Yet, when it comes to Israel (which surely cannot always be at fault), this duty appears to becast aside.

The Arab Charter is patently racist in the manner in which it attacks Zionism. As I said before, it wasan echo of the disgracing and disgraced "Zionism is racism" resolution passed by the UN General Assembly. It was also a reflection of the assault upon Israel and worldJewry that occured in Durban I and, therefore is a harbinger of the upcoming Durban II.

That being clear, silence was not an option for you or your position. But neither was your initialstatement appropriate. More importantly, why is it that with respect to Israel, your office has a habit of saying one thing - usually highly and unfairly critical ofIsrael, thus getting the media attention, and then, sometimes, as an after-thought, correcting or expanding or modifying the original statement? And, I might add, usuallyto a much-diminished media focus.

Furthermore, the issue is not the Holocaust or any comments that you made to commemorate it. In fact,pointing to laudatory speeches about the Holocaust simply obscures the real issue: do you agree that Jews have a right to a free and independent homeland of their own inthe Middle East?

That is, do you accept Zionism as a valid, legitimate expression of the yearning of Jews to such anation-state, just as exists in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Arab Republic of Egypt, France, China, and so on?

It is that question which I ask you to answer clearly and cogently. It is that answer which frames yourperspective and your agency's attitude.

Without a clear response, the answer is glaringly clear - and it is not a pretty picture.

Sincerely,

Leo