Human rights first

Human rights must remain the foundation of any society. People should be respected and the protection of poor and powerless people should take the primacy in any type of intervention. If we take such an approach as the guiding principle we have a safe political compass. People can then take care of their own lives and try their best to have a decent livelihood.

Everything that tries to circumvent a human-rights first policy is just the wrong way of doing things. At the UN, we have learned the importance of such a way of doing business. But we tend, from time to time, to forget it and be friendly with the wrong side of the problem. Good leadership is about keeping the focus on what we know is important.