BBC NEWS | Europe | Annan says rights body harming UN

Since Kofi seems to have survived the oil-for-food scandal for the moment, he's wisely trying to rid the U.N. of other absurdities. The Human Rights Commission is a blatant expression of much of what's wrong with the U.N. To his credit...and his benefit... he's going after it, hopefully to fix it, not merely to enhance his own sagging reputation.

"We have reached a point at which the commission's declining credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system," Mr Annan said as he addressed the commission's annual six-week session at its Swiss headquarters.

"Unless we re-make our human rights machinery, we may be unable to renew public confidence in the United Nations itself," he said.