UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 1 (UPI) -- A new human rights council will be a top priority for the United Nations in 2006 as it juggles other avenues of reform, the New York Times reported Sunday.
The United Nations, plagued by credibility problems such as the Iraq oil-for-food program, is trying to remake itself into a more efficient and effective world body.
The Times reports Secretary-General Kofi Annan, beginning his final year as leader, has moved human rights ahead of budget and management reform and a post-war peace-building commission on the priority list.
The current Human Rights Commission is made up of 53 members elected by region. They serve staggered, three-year terms and meet once a year for six weeks.
U.N. officials, member states and human rights groups say the commission is ineffective and corrupt, allowing chronic abusers like Libya, Cuba, Sudan and Zimbabwe to sit on it. Libya chaired the commission in 2003.
Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said abusers want to be on the commission because it allows them to make sure they aren't taken to task for abuses.
Talks on the new commission are scheduled to start again Jan. 11.
