The First Session of the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development - Opening remarks by Ambassador Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger (Austria), President of the Human Rights Council (2020)

Tuesday, 23 June 2020, 11:00-13:00 (EDT)/17:00-19:00 (CEST)

Virtual private meeting

Good morning to everyone who is joining us from overseas, and good afternoon to those participating from within our time zone.

A very warm welcome to all of you to this virtual inaugural session of the newly created Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development, and let me congratulate you on your appointments as members of this Mechanism.

In my address to the Human Rights Council in December last year, upon assuming the Presidency, I highlighted a few points that I felt were and still feel are very important.

First, I committed to be everybody’s President, equally open and available to all. To be impartial and neutral, with the only objective in mind to facilitate the Council’s work in promoting and protecting human rights. The Council is in a very difficult phase due to COVID-19 pandemic which added to a work that is challenging in any case since the background of multilateralism which is being doubted by many people. Nevertheless, everything we do shows that we have nothing to replace multilateralism with.

I expressed concern over the challenges we face as an international community and as the United Nations organization. I refer not only to the big obstacles and challenges, such as poverty and climate change, but also the more profane challenges in the form of the liquidity crisis that the organization continues to face. This poses a real threat to multilateralism.

My Presidency falls in the year of the 25th anniversary of the Beijing World Conference on Women. Promoting women’s rights and genuine gender equality remains a priority for me.

This year also marks the 100th anniversary of the League of Nations and the 75th anniversary of the United Nations, milestones towards rules-based multilateralism with human rights at its core.

The very raison d’être of the Human Rights Council is to promote and protect the human rights of those most vulnerable.

When I delivered my statement last December, I could not foresee the events that would unfold a few months later and dramatically change the course of history. COVID-19 has forcefully disrupted our societies and our economies. The COVID-19 crisis will stay with us for quite some time and the issues it rose and we have to learn to work under this crisis and to organize the easing of the restrictions despite the many difficulties.

Despite the lock-down and constraints, human rights mechanisms have found creative ways to deliver on their mandates, in pursuit of bettering the human rights situation of people around the world. The Human Rights Council did not remain silent. We organized two informal conversations, one with the High Commissioner and one with Special Procedures mandate holders. A good aspect of an online meeting was that more people than usual attended. In addition, the Council adopted a President’s Statement on 29 May 2020, on the human rights implications of the COVID-19 pandemic, for the first time by way of a silence procedure which implied the challenge of obtaining consensus.

In June, we finally managed to end the spring session of the Council. The next session of the Council is due to start soon. There was a consensus by the Council that even if this is difficult we should try to get back to a normal routine. This is because the Human Rights Council is what people look at from all over the world, people who are the victims of human rights violations, who are probably helped by human rights defenders. For them is very important to keep the work going.

You as mandate holders are the eyes and ears of the Council, following much better what is going on on the ground. This independent way of producing evidence is very important for the Council.

Distinguished experts, colleagues,

I therefore commend you for successfully moving forward with your work under such difficult circumstances. I am convinced that your expert advice and thematic expertise will be invaluable to the Council in its work and I look forward to further engaging with you.

I am looking forward to meeting you in September when you are going to deliver your first report. If I can do anything for you in the meantime, I am always at your disposal.

I wish you a successful first session and look forward to receiving your first report during our September session.