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HRC 55 - Statement of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights - 26 February 2024
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Statements , Images | HRC , OHCHR , UNITED NATIONS
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
president of the General Assembly, secretary general,
president of the Human Rights Council.
Excellence is distinguished delegates.
This council enters into session at a time of seismic global shocks.
Conflicts are battering the lives of millions of civilians
and carving even deeper fault lines
across and between nations.
The pain and slaughter of so many people in the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan,
Myanmar and Haiti
and so many other places around the world
are unbearable.
And when we discuss
in the coming weeks,
country by country,
we must remember their faces
and their anguish
at a time of such atrocious violations.
Is it naive
to demand that all states
uphold their human rights commitments?
Or is it crucial?
The most important,
the most consequential?
The most urgent task
that any of us could possibly undertake?
Are these not? In reality,
Our only guarantee is essential and profoundly rooted,
anchoring our societies
in the midst of turbulence and disarray.
Member states and many partners came together at this
December high level event to commemorate the 75th,
75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
It was an important moment of reflection
on the successes and failures to implement human rights
and how we can do better in the future.
This was the culmination
of a rich
year long engagement across the world,
which resounded with demands that the world deliver on
the promises of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights,
demands for action to end conflict,
to eradicate discrimination,
to heal our distorted economies and our batted environment
demands for quality services such as education and health care,
for an end to corruption,
for a voice
in one's own future
and over and over again demands that
that states change course
to bring humanity
the benefits of greater justice, more inclusive development,
greater equality and peace.
By the end of that two day event,
153 member states
had issued concrete pledges
alongside civil society groups,
UN bodies, businesses and others
over 770 pledges in all,
they ranged from commitments to increase women's leadership and employment
equality to tackling extreme poverty,
ensuring transitional justice
and improving access to education,
health care and social protections.
Just as important was the outpouring of support from members of the public
in every corner of the globe.
The open society barometer, a survey of over 36,000 people in 30 countries
found that the vast majority agreed that human rights
have been a force for good.
In other words, the silent majority
holds to the human rights principles that ensure progress and justice
across all societies
and which keep our world safe.
Today, I'm pleased to launch
human rights a path for solutions,
which is the distillation of this hard
work that has gone into the commemoration year
in the hope that it will inform the summit of the future.
This pass resolution sets out eight key messages to guide renewed action for peace,
economies that work for people and planet, effective governance
and guardrails for digital and scientific progress.
It broadens the way we think about human rights
in ways that can transform our societies and our global community.
The secretary general's announcement of the UN's protection pledge
and the agenda for protection will ensure that the entire UN gives
priority to human rights to advancing human rights in every circumstances,
no matter how challenging.
I look forward to working with colleagues across the U to implement this pledge.
I will address various country situations throughout this council session
and and
in particular
when I deliver the global update next Monday,
but this morning I would like to flag two overarching concerns that have
potential impact on all countries.
First
negotiations on treaties on pandemic prevention
and on cybercrime,
as well as on plastic pollution
and global discussions about the regulation of artificial intelligence.
All these talks are currently under way,
but they are not sufficiently taking into account human rights obligations
and the human rights harms that could be done.
Second,
I am disturbed by attempts to undermine the legitimacy
and work of the United Nations and other institutions.
They include disinformation that targets
UN humanitarian organisations, UN peacekeepers
and my office.
The UN has become a lightning rod for manipulative propaganda
and a scapegoat for policy failures.
This is profoundly destructive of the common good,
and it callously betrays
the many people
whose lives rely on it.
The UN is uniquely equipped to enable states
to discuss and resolve pressing global issues,
and this convening power is particularly vital now
when the magnitude of conflict, planetary peril
and digital transformation requires urgent solutions.
UN. Humanitarian agencies assist hundreds of millions of people to stay alive.
The UN's development and peace work is
absolutely crucial to all nations.
My office is mandated to monitor
and report on human rights because states have agreed that
rights and justice are the best and only way forward.
The work of opening dialogues, keeping communication channels
alive and protecting rights is not comfortable for everyone,
but it is essential to all of us.
We need to overcome
the binary view
that if you are not for us
and against our enemies,
then you too must be an enemy
within countries. The US versus them
illogic
is creating increasingly dangerous
and combustible divisions, especially
in pre electoral periods,
of which we all know there are many. This year.
All this is a politics of distraction,
of war mongering
which slowly numbs our deepest sense of compassion,
especially at a time of division and fear.
Seeing the humanity in the other
is the lifeline
that can tug us away from disaster.
I draw strength and hope from last year's powerful tributes
to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The testimonies we heard from so many people around the globe
and the significant pledges that were made
the power of human rights is rooted in their universality.
The equal value of every human life that is at their core.
The same human rights standards
must be deployed everywhere.
And they must be benchmarks for future progress.
Not high water marks from which we can recede.
Every human being is born equal.
All victims are equally deserving of justice.
No one can be left behind
and nobody is above the law. Thank you, Mr President.