Interest in New Zealand's candidature for the UN Human Rights Council is growing. Both Murray McCully and Stephen Franks have speculated that there might be more to this candidacy than meets the eye. McCully suggests that Helen Clark, because of her role in drafting our Electoral Finance Act, will be a shoo in to replace Nigeria as Chair of this Council. He goes further and suggests that Clark might be wanting to replace Don McKay as the NZ Rep on this Council (well Labour did send Anne Hercus as Ambassador to the UN in New York, why not Helen Clark to Geneva??). We feel that Miss Clark has higher ambition within the UN that Chair of the Human Rights Council. ILO comes up too soon so the next big job is the UN Environment Programme. Could this be why the PM is so determined to pass the Emissions Trading Scheme? Bugger the economy, but it will make my CV look good for that job?
So we doubt that McCully is right. But if he does have some inside info he might like to call Dell Higgie at MFAT as she is in the process of preparing for the move to Geneva the moment McKay moves on.
