GENEVA, July 22 (AFP) - The new UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, urged Israel on Thursday to accept what she described as an international legal and political consensus against its West Bank security barrier.
"One has to hope that the government of Israel will reconsider the wisdom of ensuring its security, which I can see is a most pressing concern, through means other than this particular one," she told reporters.
Arbour, a 57-year-old former Canadian Supreme Court judge and UN war crimes prosecutor, spoke at her first news conference since she took office on July 1 as the successor to Sergio Vieira de Mello, who was killed in Iraq in August 2003.
On Tuesday, the United Nations General Assembly voted 150-6 with 10 abstentions for a resolution demanding that Israel comply with a non-binding ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague to tear down its barrier.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan urged Israel to implement the ICJ ruling and also hailed an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that part of the 425-mile (700-kilometre) barrier be re-routed.
Arbour said it was "very clear... that a very full fledged legal process has unfolded" in the ICJ and the Israeli Supreme Court.
"A political process has also unfolded in the General Assembly and all authorities point in the same direction, that is that as presently conceived and erected, this barrier should be removed," she said.
"The consensus is that it is not conducive to a resolution of the conflict in this region," she added.