United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called for major changes to the way human rights are investigated and applied, saying the current U.N. Commission on Human Rights has been “undermined by the politicization of its sessions,” and its “declining credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole.”

Speaking to the current session of the Commission on Human Rights on April 7, Annan proposed new methods of better implementing the existing rules, ensuring that states really did observe human rights. To accomplish this Annan recommended a new Human Rights Council at the highest U.N. level, “which must be a society of the committed. It must be more accountable and more representative.” Its elected members “should have a solid record of commitment to the highest human rights standards,” he said.

The alternative is to continue a system generally recognized as having a massive “credibility gap,” with well-known human rights violating nations sitting on the Commission as judges of others.

“The gap between what we seem to promise, and what we actually deliver, has grown,” Annan concluded. “The answer is not to draw back from an ambitious human rights agenda, but to make the improvements that will enable our machinery to live up to the world’s expectations. Our constituents will not understand or accept any excuse if we fail to act.”

“Clearly something must be done to give the Commission greater strength and credibility,” said Seventh-day Adventist church representative to the United Nations Jonathan Gallagher. He is attending the Commission meetings.

“It becomes a mockery when some states with poor records of human rights are allowed on such an important review Commission. We are deeply committed to fundamental human rights, especially freedom of conscience and religion, and support efforts to call nations to account when they violate these vital liberties.”

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has special consultative status with the United Nations, which permits the church to make statements to the Commission, attend U.N. conferences and meetings, and speak out on issues of importance such as religious freedom, health principles and family rights.