2007, 52 minutes.
She was the Chief Prosecutor who indicted Slobodan Milosevic and dozens of others at the international tribunals that followed the wars in the Balkans and the Rwanda genocide. Then she was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada, usually a career-crowning assignment – but not for the restless Louise Arbour.
After five years in Ottawa she was back in the global arena, this time as the United Nation’s High Commissioner for Human Rights. It was the height of the so-called War on Terror, Darfur was burning, slaughter stained the towns of Chechnya, and in Uganda a messianic cult army held the country hostage.
At the UN, governments defend their interests more often than they admit to wrongdoing. Upholding the principles of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of Man and rejecting political compromise, Louise Arbour has her work cut out for her as she confronts a violent, chaotic period in world affairs.