Sir, - Your editorial (December 9th) on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights mentions that its articles have been "flagrantly violated" in certain countries.
States are not the only offenders. The UN has also been guilty of failures of omission and commission. In the case of Rwanda, for instance, the UN failed to prevent genocide. Rather, it ran away. In the case of Iraq, UN sanctions have cost countless lives. In both cases, moreover, the human losses were predictable, hence preventable. - Yours, etc., J. A. Barnwell,
St Patrick's Road, Dublin 9.