UN Geneva - Multimedia Newsroom : HRC - Press Conference: President of the Human Rights Council

[Other language spoken]

Welcome to this press conference with Ambassador York Lauber, the President of the Human Rights Council for this 19 cycle, the year 2025.

Ambassador Lauber will give you a brief overview of the upcoming 60th session that will begin this coming Monday.

It's a quite heavy programme of work, but the Presidency, the Office of the President and the Secretariat will do their best to achieve this programme of work on time.

So without further ado, I'll give the floor to Ambassador Lauper.

Thank you very much, Pascal.

Good morning, everybody.

Thank you for joining us once again.

I can't believe we are here already.

I, I feel we've been here just a few days back and now it's already the 60s session.

So thank you so much for taking the time.

As Pascal said, we are in the last days of preparation for the next session that will take place from 8:00 September to 8 October.

Starting next Monday, it will take place in the Assembly Hall.

We had to leave our Room 20 behind for the time.

This is, as you all know, due to the imminent closure of Building E, that's the last part of the Ballerinacion complex that will be renovated.

The Council secretariat assured us, and if there is any concerns about this, please come see us, that in spite of the change of room and the movement, they will do their very best to make working conditions for you as convenient as always.

I'm not sure how convenient they're always, but they should not be worse than than before.

4 1/2 weeks of session that's a little less than originally planned.

You know the reasons.

We will get through a very ambitious programme with several thematic priorities, county specific human rights concerns.

I'll get back to that.

We will engage in more than 30 interactive dialogues.

We will have 5 panel discussions.

We will have the presentation of over 70 reports by UN officials, experts, special rapporteurs, commissions of enquiry and other mechanisms in line with the measures that the Council agreed on in June.

We will have to continue to implement limited technical adjustments to the programme of work, some shortening of speaking time, some cutting off of number of delegations able to take the floor.

These adjustments are designed to generate time and cost savings.

At the same time we want, need and I think we are able to preserve the integrity of the substance of these mandated activities.

So as I said, the session will be shorter by 2 1/2 days, according to the current planning, shorter than originally planned, but we will cover the full agenda, the full programme, just in a more efficient, a bit rushed away.

On Monday, the 1st day, we will begin with hearing the global update on the situation of human rights by the High Commissioner by Fokker Turk.

On that same day at lunch.

And this is not an official meeting, it's more of a side event, but I want to mention it anyway because it's one of the highlights.

We will have a commemoration event on the Beijing Plus 30 Declaration and Plan of Action.

The issue of gender rights, gender equality is an issue that is of much concern these days, which is why I'm very happy to be able to have this event and I wanted to mention it here also.

Still, on the Monday, the Council will look at the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Sudan and address the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The day after, we will have many country situations to look at.

Throughout the session, the Council will hear from the Special Rapporteurs on the Russian Federation on Burundi.

Updates are also scheduled on Belarus, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Haiti, the Central African Republic, Cambodia, Libya, Somalia, Ukraine and Yemen.

We will also have several investigative mechanisms appearing before the Council and reporting the ones on Myanmar, Sudan, Belarus, Ukraine, Venezuela, Syria, Nicaragua and from the expert Mechanism to advance racial justice and equality in law enforcement.

These presentations will be completed by the panel discussions scheduled to take place during the six year session.

We have the biannual panel on unilateral coercive measures that takes place on 12th September.

We have a panel on Discrimination and violence against intersex Persons on 15 September.

We have the biannual Panel on Youth and Human Rights on 16 September, the annual discussion on the integration of gender perspective on the 23rd of September and the annual Panel on Indigenous Peoples on the 24 of September.

We will have universal periodic review adoptions for more than a dozen States and as usual, the last days of the Council are dedicated for the Council to adopt decisions resolutions.

The Council will also appoint a new independent expert on the Central African Republic.

So for 34 draft proposals have been announced.

Many of these renew existing mandates for special procedures and mechanisms of the Council, or they revisit ongoing human rights themes such as the question of the death penalty, draft policies, preventable maternal mortality and mobility.

So far, we have heard of new draft proposed draft proposals regarding rising sea levels and the impact on human rights and protecting the rights of children during and after conflicts.

We also have a draft text coming on the role of freedom of opinion and expression in women's empowerment.

It's a text that is reintroduced or at least on the same same issue we had an earlier text adopted in the Council in 2013.

This is about the programme and the substance.

As always, I encourage the media and the public to follow the session via UN Web TV social media under the hash tag HRC 60 real time schedule updates are available on I don't know whether we have to text here hrcsixtysession.get.com you know that well and all reports will be published on the council's web page.

You know the A to C guide and the visual directory that are available to navigate this fairly complex and rich session.

Thank you very much.

With that, I'm open the questions.

[Other language spoken]

We're ready to take some questions from the floor.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, thank you for the press conference.

You, you mentioned the the previous session where there were, there was, there were already technical adjustment in order to be more efficient.

So, yeah, what what kind of conclusions do you draw from that experience and how do you see that unfolding for the next session?

Also in the framework of in the in the context of the discussions around reform?

We can feel that a lot of member states are rather thinking of reform right now and knowing more about that than really getting, you know, deeper into the substance.

So how do you see the consequences of that discussion on the work of the council to to come?

[Other language spoken]

Straight ahead, because it's a big issue.

Of course, to be honest with you, I have a bit mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I was pleased to see that the delegations respected the decisions we took.

They made a great effort to increase further the efficiency of the Council.

We did get through the programme of the last session.

It did not have a negative impact on on attitude of the delegations in terms of being constructive, being transparent.

We had a good result in the sense that many of the decisions of the Council were taken by consensus.

My concern is that during by measures like further restricting speaking time and accessibility to debate to cutting down the number of delegations that are able to take the floor.

That's the contrary of what I'm what I like to see.

[Other language spoken]

I, I said this in the beginning when I took over as president and I feel we have to be very careful where there is like a critical moment where efficiency turns into or puts at risk the quality of the work, the quality of the debate in the council.

So we, we have in the meantime continued our discussions internally among Member states, observers, other stakeholder, civil society, how to address this issue.

Also in light of the the further discussions that are taking place at headquarters of the United Nations, how to save, how to cut down budget, how to reform.

We have some ideas, we identified some avenues.

We know that we need to look at the workload, the the number of activities and mandates have steadily increased.

There is a reason for that.

The situation of human rights in the world requires the council to react, but there's also ways of of looking at that.

These discussions are ongoing.

I had this week several meetings with the regional groups sharing my assessment of the situation, some ideas.

I, I, I feel that the general awareness that we cannot wait and see we need to address this is there.

But I also have to be honest, it will will not be easy.

You know that how difficult it already is to agree on resolutions and then we when we have to cut down on decisions we took earlier, that will also be complicated.

But again, I, I, I remain relatively optimistic because I think everybody has understood now that the challenge is here that we need to, that we need to take action on that.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, thank you for the press conference.

Since the US has pulled out of the Human Rights Council and they've pulled out of the EE.

PEPU as well.

[Other language spoken]

Will there still be kind of?

Discussions about the US.

Situations in the Council.

Even though we pulled out of everything, thank you, Thank you.

You're right.

We received a letter from the US government announcing that they will not participate in in this round of Universal Periodic Review.

We have a meeting of the Bureau of the Council this afternoon where we will discuss this and see how the Council has to react to that.

Apart from that, it's up to every delegation to bring up an issue where they are concerned about the development of human rights in any country, including the United States.

I don't know yet whether it will be an issue in the next session.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for the the briefing.

I wanted to follow up on Stefan's question.

I was wondering, So what you're discussing this afternoon, will it be on whether or not a UPR can continue without the country present?

Is that, is that an option or would it just be indefinitely postponed?

Is that sort of what you're discussing?

And then I'd, and then I just wanted to ask, I mean, you mentioned that there are a lot of human rights concerns right now.

It seems a little ironic or or maybe frightening that we have a situation with soaring human rights abuses and then reducing, reducing the time available to discuss it at the at the Human Rights Council.

[Other language spoken]

On the first, yes, exactly.

That's some of the options we are discussing here.

And this afternoon the the council will have to make a formal determination on how or what that means.

It's the first time that the country announces that they are they don't want to participate.

On the second, I completely agree.

Of course it is counter intuitive, but it's also something we are not only seeing in the field of human rights.

You know, armed conflicts are increasing and we don't invest more money in prevention, peace, mediation, peace building.

But mostly we are now spending more money on on hard security, on defence.

Humanitarian needs are increasing, but we're not increasing the contributions to humanitarian organisations.

We are limiting them and we suffer the same here again, I every crisis has an opportunity and, and maybe this is the time where we need to look also in the Human Rights Council into what are the most urgent issues now?

What does our mandate really tell us what, where we need to put the focus on?

In that sense, I'm, I'm, I share your concerns.

I want to see also where are opportunities and discuss this with the members of the Council.

OK, Pierre Blatten, how do you tell you?

[Other language spoken]

Something to.

Say about the terrific situation in high team, especially about the emigration of the American item you're.

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, any, any, any counter situation.

I, I don't want to comment because the expertise is with the High Commissioner's Office.

He will brief us on the situation of human rights around the world.

I don't know which country which situations he will mention on on Monday.

I invite you to to listen in and see whether whether he brings up the situation and tells us about the current situation there.

We will have a dedicated meeting on Haiti on the 2nd of October with the High Commissioner and his human rights experts on the situation there.

I'll first take a question, a few question online and then I'll get back to the room.

Nick coming, Bruce from the New York Times, please.

[Other language spoken]

Good morning and thank you for the briefing and taking the question.

Not specifically on the Council session, but I wondered where you are in the process of nominating a new Council Commissioner inquiry membership for OPT.

Have you received recommendations for that?

When do you expect to to, to make that announcement?

[Other language spoken]

Yes, that's on the consideration.

I don't know the deadlines.

I can't tell you more about this at this point.

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OK, Doyon Berkeley, tell the Swiss AMFO.

Thank you for the briefing also about the current reforms and liquidity crisis.

I'm wondering, you know, if, if countries are looking at what to keep and what not to keep, for example, in what the Human Rights Council do does, what is your opinion or what do you think the Human Rights Council does best?

What should we really save?

I I'm the moderator of this discussion, so I don't want to say too much about it, but one, there's a base.

I think there's a couple of principles member states will insist on when we are approaching this discussion.

Then I tested them with the groups this week and one is to keep the integrity.

Of the mandate of the Council being like the three pillars, keeping on developing human rights.

When there are new developments in the world that that need to response, what are the norms?

Do we need to adapt the norms like do we are?

Are we sufficiently equipped on human rights norms, for instance, in the response to new technologies and things like that?

The second being monitoring and responding to human rights violations or best preventing human rights violations.

And then the third, being able to support states in their own efforts to to protect the human rights.

And they are, they're equally important.

Some may say this is a priority or the other, but, but as a, as a, as a group, as the group of all member States, they should be equally important.

So I'd rather not say what my preferences are.

I, I, of course, I'm, I'm neutral on this.

Everything.

Everything is important.

[Other language spoken]

Thanks a lot for the briefing.

Also in that direction, could you just be one more time specific about what is missing because of the liquidity crisis in this Human Rights Council?

Were there specific sessions?

Like what exactly did you have to cut down?

[Other language spoken]

Nothing is missing in the in the session We have the financial situation of the council is such that we have two main areas of activity and financing.

1 is our sessions we meet, we need money to put on the lights, to put on the sound system, to have interpretation, to have security, to have documentation.

That money comes from the UN Secretariat, from conference services.

And there we had to make cuts to shorten the meeting time by 2 1/2 days in in this session.

And we did this by cutting some of the speaking time on some segments.

Member states being able to speak 1 1/2 instead of 2 1/2 minutes, that's very short.

We had on some segments the number of delegations that are able to take the floor had to be cut.

I think we had to cut it at 30 or something.

The details right now and the one or one or two other measures of this, the other part of savings we we have to make.

But that's not the session itself.

It's the mandate implement, mandate implementation.

When the council decides to have an investigative mechanism or a special rapporteur or an issue, they need resources.

They need, they get support from the secretariat to do research, to write reports, they need to travel to a country to see the situation.

And there there's also less money available, which means they don't get necessarily all the the research and assistance they need to do their work.

They are able to, to travel maybe once to a country, but not twice.

So there is a a very clear impact of this, of this financial of the shortage of financial resources on the work of the Council, both in our meetings, in the sessions and for the implementation of the mandates that we design.

[Other language spoken]

Yes, in order to, to have a better understanding about the needs, could you tell us what is the amount needed for instance, to put together a Commission of inquiry or what is the amount needed in order to run the sessions?

The technical aspect, meaning as you, you just explained to us, translation, interpretation and those technical aspects, what is the the amounts needed?

[Other language spoken]

Thank you for the question.

I have to be honest with you.

The, the budget process, distribution of resources within a big organisation like the UN, it's a a very complicated, complex affair.

And I myself who thought I knew the UN, well, I'm discovering a lot of things, but I haven't discovered all of it.

So I, I don't have the exact numbers.

What I can tell you for instance, is that the there's not huge amounts.

That's maybe a point to start with when on the Secretary General, Guy Ryder, who is leading on behalf of the Secretary General the UNAT reform process.

When he was here in Geneva in in early summer, he told us that the human rights pillar within the United Nations next to the peace and security and the development pillar takes less than 1% of the total resources in the UN, in the UN system.

So it's tiny.

The the amounts you're talking about for the Human Rights Council are also small.

The savings we made by cutting down 2 1/2 days were around $250,000.

That's not nothing, but it's relatively little given the overall financial situation.

The an investigate an investigative mechanism, it's probably risky to say an amount, but from what I see from the existing mechanisms, each one will is specifically determined what the costs are.

It's something around 34 million per year.

That's the salaries for the research assistants, the administrative support, travel, etcetera.

The the mandate holders themselves, they don't get a salary.

They do this pro bono.

So it's not, it's, it's important, but not huge amounts of money and still we have to face cuts and we need to address this.

[Other language spoken]

Thank you, Pascal, and thank you, Mr Ambassador, for coming to see us.

I wanted to pick up on some of the issues that my dear colleagues Dorian and Stephanie and and Nina and Kathleen have raised about both the financial and the impact of the financial issues and the impact it is particularly with regard to reform.

What are you doing?

What is the Council doing to try to reform to make sure that it's decisions are effective?

And.

What I mean by effective is having a concrete impact because a lot of people look at this council and hear a lot of people talking, but they're not sure that there's a concrete impact of the, of the decisions made and the activities taking place.

I will give you 1 quick example.

Last night, some of us had a talk with a a, a diplomat who mentioned that on arbitrary detention that there have been instances where there have been proof that people have been released because of the actions of the council, that people have literally been released because of that, that, that action.

So I'm wondering specifically what can you say that you're doing to reform the council so that the impact, the concrete impact and, and what metrics are you tracing to make sure that that happens?

[Other language spoken]

Yeah, thank you very much.

And thanks for giving me a positive example where there was a, an impact, a direct impact of the council's work.

And you're right, we we are not doing a great job explaining the positive outcome of our work.

Maybe we really need to get better.

Maybe you people who are experts in communication, in reporting media can give us some some good advice.

We also have to remember that the council doesn't have a set of tools to impose decisions.

First of all, the Human Rights Council is not the Security Council.

We cannot take decisions that are legally binding for the member states.

Our decisions or resolutions, they have a certain political weight, but they're not legally binding.

We also don't have tools that give us some sort of a police force to intervene in a country where human rights are are violated.

The force of the council lies somewhere else.

First of all, to bring issues to the public awareness.

What we're doing during the sessions through the discussions on on on issues related to human rights.

Again, as an example, what does the rapid technological development mean for human rights or the fact that societies are ageing issues, thematic issues like that.

And then countries in specific situations, in specific countries or situations of specific groups.

If we didn't talk about this in public and in the council, the council that offers a platform to governments, but also to to other groups, to civil society, maybe nobody would hear about how human rights in in in this or the other place or violated.

Then the force of this public, this public awareness through the work you're you doing here also the journalists are doing and thus many times, not always, but many times move a government to take measures and and and to be more careful about about their obligations.

The Council does also launch with the help then of the High Commissioner's Office, programmes for for supporting individual countries in in better respecting their human rights, help them to build capacity, give training to police forces, to prisoner personnel, things like that.

So there's a a long list of positive impact in the discussion now on on how to improve the work of the Council, how to face up to the the restricted resources.

We have to look in our discussions on these priorities and ask ourselves where do the resources we have have the best, the best, the the most direct, the most tangible impact?

That will definitely be part of the discussion.

I was a little long in the response, just as approved for how much we are thinking about this and how important this question is actually to me personally else you're.

Actually looking for concrete example of the impact of the council.

Please feel free to contact Matthew and I.

We have several example, recent example that we can share with you.

So in case you didn't see them, we're we'll be happy to flag them to you.

[Other language spoken]

Do we have any more questions from the room?

Any questions from journalists online?

Ambassador, maybe you have any closing remarks to make?

None other than taking the opportunity once again to thank you very much.

I mentioned it already.

Your work is, is crucially important.

If you're not reporting on, on what we're doing, some of the positive effect of the council, we'll be lost.

So thank you very much.

We will remain available throughout the session and of course beyond.

If you have any questions, need for information, we will do our best to make your life, your work easier.

Pascal is here.

My wonderful team of the presidency is here.

[Other language spoken]

Please don't hesitate to, to get in touch.

[Other language spoken]

We will do our best to support your work.

[Other language spoken]

We'll have some technical and logistical information to share with you before the end of this week regarding the media gallery, filming and photographing roles in the general in the Assembly Hall.

It's a new room for all of us, I mean for many of us.

So I'll share this information with you.

No laters and Friday.

And besides that, see you on Monday morning, 10 AM Assembly Hall.

[Other language spoken]

HRC - Press Conference: President of the Human Rights Council - 03 September 2025