Outgoing UN human rights chief Mary Robinson today defended her frequently outspoken criticism of the United States for violating rights and civil liberties after September 11th.
Speaking to journalists on her penultimate day in office, the former president of Ireland said many countries had used the suicide plane hijackings that killed more than 3,000 people as a pretext for new security laws that violated international human rights norms.
Speaking in French, she said it was necessary to criticise the United States "because when I criticise some countries, people say look at what is happening in the United States." She said: "The norms have changed. I say with a lot of force that the norms and standards cannot change. This cannot happen".
Mrs Robinson, who will be replaced as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights by Brazilian UN veteran Sergio Vieira de Mello, has frequently attracted criticism from Washington over her objections to the treatment of alleged al-Qaeda and Taliban prisoners being held at a US naval base in Cuba.
She has also echoed the criticisms of human rights activists at the US rounding up of hundreds of people of mainly Middle Eastern origin following the attacks in New York and Washington and their being held for long periods without trial.
Mrs Robinson said she was encouraged by signs of growing dissent in the United States - in Congress and among lawyers' groups and rights organisations - and in other countries over the actions being taken by governments.
"I hope that after the September 11 anniversary there will be a change that will reinforce the importance of human rights norms in the United States," she said.
Mrs Robinson, who extended her four-year term by an extra year in 2001 at the request of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, reaffirmed that she might have been ready to stay on if there had been strong pressure for her to do so.
Diplomats say that the United States in particular was against her continuing, although she also ran foul of Russia and China, among others, for her attacks on their rights records.
From October, Mrs Robinson moves to New York to head a new human rights venture - the Ethical Globalisation Initiative - which will monitor states' adherence to the human rights conventions they have signed as well as seeking funds to help strengthen rights protection in poorer nations.