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HRC 55 - Statement of the UN Secretary General - 26 February 2024
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Human Rights Council 55th session (HRC 55) - Opening - 26 February 2024
Opening of session and High-level segment (HLS) including the opening statements of:
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- Omar Zniber, President of the UN Human Rights Council
- Dennis Francis, President of the UN General Assembly
- António Guterres, UN Secretary-General
- Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
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Please, see attached PDF for the opening statements.
Opening statements by:
- Omar Zniber, President of the UN Human Rights Council
- Dennis Francis, President of the UN General Assembly
- António Guterres, UN Secretary-General
- Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Photos of António Guterres, UN Secretary-General at the opening of the 55th regular session of the UN Human Rights Council.
Teleprompter
Mister President of the 78th General Assembly. For your declaration.
And now I give the floor
to His Excellency Mister Secretary General of the United Nations.
You have the floor
President of the General Assembly, Mr President of the Human Rights Council.
Excellencies. Ladies and gentlemen,
human rights are the bedrock of peace
Today, both are under attack.
We meet at a time of turbulence for our world, for people and for human rights.
First and foremost,
conflicts are taking a terrible toll as parties
to trample on human rights and humanitarian law.
At the local level and online,
many communities are riven with violent rhetoric, discrimination and hate Speech
adds to that an information war, a war
on the poor
and a war on nature.
All these battles have one thing in common.
They are a war on fundamental human rights.
And in every case, the path to peace begins with full respect for all human rights,
civil, cultural, economic, political and social
and without double standards.
Because building a culture of human rights is building a world at peace.
I commend the critical contributions of the Human Rights Council towards this goal
through its mandates and mechanisms and the response to evolving situations.
Excellencies.
Our world is becoming less safe by the day.
After decades of stable power relations,
we are transitioning into an era of multipolarity.
This creates new opportunities for leadership
and justice on the international stage.
But multipolarity without strong multilateral institutions
is a recipe for chaos.
As powers compete, tensions rise,
the rule of law
and the rules of war are being undermined.
From Ukraine to Sudan to Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Gaza,
parties to conflict are turning a blind eye to international law,
the Geneva Conventions and even the United Nations Charter.
The Security Council is often deadlocked and able to act on
the most significant peace and security issues of our time.
The council's lack of unity on Russia's invasion of
Ukraine and on Israel's military operations in Gaza.
Following the horrific terror attacks by Hamas on 7 October
as severely but perhaps fatally undermined its authority,
the council needs serious reform
to its composition
and working methods.
Nothing can justify humans deliberate killing, injuring,
torturing and kidnapping of civilians, the use of sexual violence
and indiscriminate launching of rockets towards Israel.
But nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
I invoked Article 99 for the first time in my mandate
to put the greatest possible pressure on the council to do everything in its power
to end the bloodshed in Gaza and prevent escalation.
But it was not enough.
International humanitarian law remains under attack.
Tens of thousands of civilians, including women and Children,
have been killed in Gaza.
Humanitarian aid is still completely insufficient.
Rafah is the core of the humanitarian aid operation
and UN
W A is the backbone of that effort.
An
all out Israeli offensive on the city would not only be
terrifying for more than a million Palestinian civilians sheltering there,
it would put the final nail in the coffin of our aid programmes.
I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire
and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
Excellencies.
Around the world,
violence is increasing and conflict related
human rights violations are spreading.
International human rights
and humanitarian law are clear.
All parties must distinguish between civilians and combatants at all times.
Attacks on civilians or protected infrastructure,
including schools and hospitals, are prohibited.
Indiscriminate attacks are prohibited
attacks where the likelihood of civilian death is
disproportionate to the probable military advantage are prohibited.
Forced displacement is prohibited.
The taking and holding of hostages is prohibited.
The use of civilian human shields is prohibited.
Collective punishment is prohibited.
The use of sexual violence as a weapon of war
is prohibited
and violations by one party do not absolve the other for compliance.
We cannot. We must not
become numb to appalling and repeated violations
of international humanitarian and human rights law.
All allegations of serious violations and abuses demand urgent investigation
and accountability,
and we are determined to take such action
in relation to allegations against our own staff.
Excellencies.
The Geneva Conventions,
which required the protection of civilians and the
humane treatment of people in enemy hands,
were not the result of an outbreak of global goodwill.
These treaties were agreed because they protect everyone
around the world.
Warring parties claim exemptions,
asserting that certain people or situations are uniquely dangerous.
But flouting international law
only feeds insecurity and results in more bloodshed.
Human rights conventions and humanitarian law
are based on cold, hard reality.
They recognise that terrorising civilians and depriving them of food,
water and healthcare
is a recipe for endless anger. alienation, extremism and conflict.
Today's war mongers cannot erase the clear lesson of the past.
Protecting human rights protects us all.
We urgently need a new commitment to all human rights civil, cultural, economic,
political and social
as they apply to peace and security,
backed by serious efforts at implementation and accountability.
And states have the primary responsibility to protect and promote human rights
to support states in meeting their obligations,
I am launching a system wide the United Nations agenda for protection,
together with the High Commissioner for Human Rights
under the agenda, the United Nations, across the full spectrum of our work,
will let us when to prevent human rights violations
and to identify and respond to them when they take place.
That is the protection pledge of all United Nations
bodies to do their utmost to protect people,
excellencies
around the world,
governments must step up and commit to working
for peace and security rooted in human rights.
The summit of the future in September is our opportunity for such a recommitment.
The new agenda for peace to be discussed at the summit
applies a human rights lens to preventing and ending violence in all its forms
building on our call to action for human rights.
It urges an end to reflexive responses to violence
and scoring the need for strategic
comprehensive approaches that address root causes.
Successful peace processes from Colombia to Northern Ireland
demonstrate that the full spectrum of human
rights is indispensable to building peace.
The new Agenda for Peace recognises that security
policies that ignore human rights can divide communities,
exacerbate inequalities and drive people towards extremism.
It calls for all military engagement to respect human rights and humanitarian law
and to be backed by political and development strategies.
It urges security policies centred on people
with the full and equal participation of women
and the strong representation of young people.
It calls for human rights to be at the
heart of the governance of new weapons technologies,
including artificial intelligence,
and seeks the total prohibition of lethal autonomous weapons
with the power to kill without human involvement.
It affirms that human rights and humanitarian law apply in cyberspace,
and it calls for much closer co-operation
between the UN's human rights frameworks,
the Security Council and the Peacebuilding Commission
to address violations and put human rights at the core of peace operations.
Excellencies
The new Agenda for Peace also addresses the links
between human rights violations and violence at community level,
from the epidemic of violence against women and girls to
the activities of criminal gangs to rising anti Semitism,
anti Muslim bigotry,
the persecution of minority Christian communities and
discrimination against minorities of all kinds.
Many people do not feel safe in their own communities.
Media workers and human rights defenders are frequently targeted,
sometimes as part of a strategy to reduce civic space and silence criticism.
Decades of progress on women's and girls'
rights are being challenged and rolled back,
including their fundamental right to education,
health care and their sexual and reproductive rights.
The new Agenda for Peace urges governments to create
space in national security policies for civil society,
human rights defenders and those
representing vulnerable and marginalised people.
Freedom of the media, freedom of expression and an open, inclusive civic space
are essential to peaceful democratic societies.
It calls for the dismantling and transformation of power structures
that discriminate against women and girls,
and for concrete steps to secure women's full, equal and meaningful participation
at all levels of decision making on peace and security.
And it presses for young people to be included
as participants in decision making on peace and security events.
We are also setting our ways to tackle online abuses of
human rights and support people's rights to connectivity and privacy online
through our forthcoming code of conduct for information, Integrity
and the global digital compact.
Peaceful communities require an open, secure, accessible digital public space
that supports human rights and freedoms.
Excellence,
Excellency,
the wars are not confined to the battlefield.
Certain
economic policies at national and global level
constitute a war on the poor
and a war on their human rights.
Numerous developing economies
are still struggling
to deal with the twin shock of the
COVID-19 endemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The
SDGs are far from being achieved.
This year alone.
The
poorest countries in the world must disperse more than $185 billion
to service their debt
more
than their total public spending
on healthcare, education and infrastructure
safety. Net
to
the
jeopardises the capacity of millions of people to enjoy their rights,
their right to potable water,
nutritional, food, education,
healthcare,
the global financial architecture lies at the heart of this crisis in human rights.
It is obsolete, dysfunctional and unjust
to provide
long term, low cost financing.
Provide
an effective safety net for all countries that need it
of
recovery plan at a level of $500 billion per year so
that the developing countries can access affordable long term financing.
And we also very much
call
for a new Britain
to remodel the global financial architect
for it to reflect the world of today and not of that
of 80 years ago.
The summit of the future will be an opportunity to envisage
profound reforms to make the global financing frameworks more inclusive,
equitable and just so that it can help governments to prioritise social spending
to sustainable development and to climate action,
which is so crucial
among
human rights.
The Global Social Summit and International
Conference on Financing for Development,
which
will
take
place
next year.
Emphasis
on how
economic policies, including budget
tax measures and subsidies,
can enhance
investment
in the
SDGs
and
in
human rights for all men and women and
Excellency is different.
War on nature is a war against the human rights of
the people who are among the most vulnerable in the world.
Indigenous peoples rural communities,
marginalised persons
and the neediest.
The crises
afflicting our planet, including climate change, loss of diversity and pollution
carry within them. The same
profound injustice
is the people who least contributed to these crises
who
are bearing the brunt
and paying the highest price when it comes to aggravating hunger, famine,
degradation of land of soil,
forced displacement, contamination of water sources or premature
deaths,
or recognising the right to a clean, healthy,
sustainable environment by the Human Rights Council in 2021 and
the General Assembly in 2022
shows that the time changes
environmental justice, climate, justice
calls
for ethical, equitable
treatment for the principle of responsibility and human rights. Climate justice
means that the G 20 countries
should
show the way when it comes to the progressive elimination of fossil fuels
means that all
nationally determined contributions or national
plans should be adjusted
to the maximum limit of 1.5 degrees for
the warming of the plan
calls for an effective
carbon price and an end to subsidies
given to fossil fuels.
Justice calls
on the developed countries to deliver on their financial commitments to the
developing economies, starting with that commitment to mobilise $100 million
a year and to double
financing for adaptation between now and 2025
means that the loss and damage fund should be made
operational as soon as possible
and should start receiving significant contributions
for many countries in the south.
Economic,
environmental and climate justice
the main challenge of our times When it comes to human rights,
the United Nations
joins them in calling on all countries
to shoulder their responsibilities. Excellency, at
a
dizzying
multiplication of
conflicts
are leading to unprecedented suffering.
Human rights are a constant
give
cohesion to our quest for solutions. They are fundamental for our
hopes
for a world in peace.
Four years ago,
United Nations
celebrated its 75th anniversary by launching a global survey.
The
citizens of the whole world
declared by a vast majority that they wanted global leaders to prioritise
human rights and
to respect them.
This call
was echoed during celebrations of the 75th anniversary
anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights in December
year.
Some to the future.
Give us an opportunity to respond to that call and to
ensure that our global institutions should be in step with reality.
which is constantly
in constant flux today and to fully adhere
to the abiding values of human rights together.
Let us take this opportunity
to further police
and human rights for everyone.
Women and men alike. I thank you.