Annan Convinces Robinson to Stay on as UN Human Rights ChiefUN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Tuesday that he had persuaded Mary Robinson, the UN high commissioner for human rights, to remain in her post for another year.Robinson, the former president of Ireland, unexpectedly announced last month that she would leave her current post at the end of her four-year term in September. UN sources said that she changed her mind after hearing regrets from various leaders, including French President Jacques Chirac, who spoke to UN agency heads in Geneva last week. Annan, who is on a visit to Kenya, said in Nairobi that Robinson's decision had been "a source of great regret, not only to me but to everyone concerned with human rights." "Many governments, as well as representatives of civil society around the world, have urged her to reconsider," Annan said in a statement released in the Kenyan capital. "She and I met in Geneva last week, and again yesterday here in Nairobi," Annan said. "We discussed the timing of her departure, and I am delighted to say that I have prevailed upon her, subject to approval by the General Assembly, to stay on for one more year. " Annan is in Nairobi to meet with all the executive heads of United Nations bodies. Robinson caught Annan and other U.N. diplomats off guard on March 20 when she announced that she would not seek a second term, complaining about the lack of money for her Geneva-based department and saying she could do more outside the constraints of the U.N. system. She said her office received only some 21 million U.S. dollars from the billion-dollar annual administrative body of the United Nations, too little to cover the workload. |
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