The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, has been promised extra resources by the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, to stay in the job for another year.
During talks in Nairobi Mr Annan gave "a personal commitment" that he will push for an increase in the $22 million that the High Commissioner's office receives annually from the central UN budget.
Announcing that Mrs Robinson would stay until September 2002, Mr Annan emphasised that she was responding to pleas from him and many others.
"We discussed the timing of her departure, and I am delighted to say that I have prevailed on her, subject to approval by the General Assembly, to stay on for a further year," Mr Annan said.
In particular, Mrs Robinson has demanded that resources be found to offer longer contracts to many of her staff who are currently working part-time, or on six-month contracts.
"These contracts are renewed when we can find the money. They worry about it. They have no staff structure, no promotion. It is unacceptable," she said during a telephone interview from Nairobi.
However, Mr Annan could yet face a major battle to honour his promise.
Under UN rules, the salaries of short-term staff do not come from the UN's $1 billion central budget, but Instead they are paid for from the $40 million which Mrs Robinson raises directly from UN member states and individual donors.
"Some people will be reluctant to accept that they have to pay up," said one New York-based high-ranking UN official.
The decision to stay on by the former President means that Mr Annan will not have to use up valuable political resources in finding a replacement for her in advance of his own re-election battle in November.
Admitting that it had been a "traumatic" fortnight, the High Commissioner said Mr Annan had prevailed on her to change her mind on the basis of his commitment to help with the specific difficulty of resources.
She has come under strong pressure to go back on her decision to stand down next September from leading statesmen, particularly French President Jacques Chirac, and non-governmental organisations.
In New York Mr Reed Brodie of Human Rights Watch welcomed her decision.
"We are very, very happy. She has done a superb job on human rights. It is important that the reforms she has begun are consolidated," he said.
However, relations between the UN High Commissioner and the Russians nosedived yesterday after a senior Kremlin official threatened to sever links with her over her criticism of Russia's Chechnya policy.
Russia's Human Rights Commissioner for Chechnya, Mr Vladimir Kalamanov, said Mrs Robinson had "still not found her role" in the effort to bring peace and stability to the devastated region.
If she continued to make accusations and demand ad hoc commissions, "there can be no co-operation with her," he told the Russian news agency, Interfax.
