a1472: New U.N. Expert on human rights in Haiti named (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

UNITED NATIONS, March 26 (Xinhua) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has
appointed a prominent French human rights advocate as the new United
Nations independent expert on human rights in Haiti, a U.N. spokesman
announced here Tuesday.
   Louis Joinet, a judge and legal adviser to the French prime minister,
will take on the role of independent expert vacated in March last year by
Adama Dieng of Senegal, the spokesman said.
   The appointment follows a decision to continue the role of independent
expert, taken by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights at its April 2001
session. The independent expert provides reports on the human rights
situation in Haiti to that body.
   Responding to the appointment, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
Mary Robinson issued a statement Tuesday to express her conviction that
Joinet would make "an important contribution to the cause of human rights
in Haiti."