Europeans spend 250 times more on their pets than the world devotes to the international protection and promotion of human rights, United Nations rights chief Navi Pillay said on Thursday in Geneva. In a passionate plea for more cash to cope with a surge in demands on her office in the wake of the Arab Spring, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said its total annual funding - $202 million - amounted to the same "as Australians spend on Easter eggs". Pillay told a news conference the message of the protest movements across North Africa and the Middle East had echoed across the globe, sparking huge enthusiasm for rights issues. "I ask all states to devote much more to making human rights a reality, said Pillay. "Surely it makes sense to invest more heavily in human rights, to back those brave protesters and human rights defenders in the Middle East, North Africa elsewhere with much more than praise and fine words." Her office is the focus for all U.N. activity in the rights area, ranging from programmes training police in newly emerging states to running centres to help torture victims. It maintains outposts in some 55 countries to monitor their observance of U.N. pacts such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights to which they have subscribed. It is barred from many others that fear its close scrutiny.
