Statement to the Third Committee by Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, High Commissioner for Human Rights

New York, 19 October 2016

Madam Chair, Excellencies, Colleagues and friends, I am honoured to present the report of work accomplished by my Office between August 2015 and July 2016.

This has been a period of significant challenges. Despite a number of landmark multilateral commitments which promise major progress on human rights – notable among them, the 2030 Agenda – the global consensus around fundamental principles which uphold the international system has, over the past year, repeatedly broken down. This has impeded prevention and resolution of conflicts, with devastating impact in terms of human suffering and the exercise of human rights.

My Office is acutely concerned about widespread violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in the context of conflict. When States painstakingly and collectively developed these norms, they were moved by a moral imperative – but also by their realisation that such protection is essential to protect the current and future interests of States. If the consensus behind these laws and values breaks down, both development and peace are damaged – and all of humanity suffers.

I note encouraging signs of a new global consensus on fighting the scourge of extreme poverty. But our work to promote and protect the full realization of all rights, for all people, has been challenged during the reporting period by a resurgence of intolerance against migrants and racial and religious minorities, including in the wealthiest countries. Prejudice – whether it is on the basis of an ethnic group, religious belief, class, skin colour or other characteristics – violates every human right of its victims. It holds them back from fully developing skills and participation and feeds escalating violence. As with many, if not all human rights violations, bigotry and prejudice harm not only the people they target, but also society as a whole.

Madam Chair,

The need to assist States to protect human rights is at the core of our Charter. I pay tribute to Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon for his recognition that prevention of human rights violations must become a priority for every staff-member of the UN. The Human Rights Up Front initiative enables my Office to amplify our advocacy and promote quicker, better coordinated and more effective system-wide responses to crisis.

Mechanisms for decision-making, strategic planning and operational support for UN peace operations now integrate human rights issues more consistently. We have provided recommendations to the Secretary-General to ensure prompt and adequate responses to information from across the UN system in relation to serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. Most recently, together with the Department of Political Affairs, my Office has developed the concept of multidisciplinary “light teams” able to rapidly deploy staff members to situations of concern – a tool which may be particularly relevant to prevention. During the period under review, such teams were deployed to Burkina Faso, Lesotho and the Republic of the Congo.

Similarly, the work of mainstreaming human rights throughout the UN development system continues to be a priority for my Office. Over the reporting period, guidance to Resident Coordinators has been updated and strengthened.

My Office has also briefed and trained over 300 UN staff members, government representatives and civil society actors on women’s human rights and the integration of gender issues. With UN-Women, we have continued to lead implementation of the United Nations System-Wide Action Plan on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UN-SWAP. And we have coordinated development of a mandatory online course on the human rights responsibilities of all UN staff.

Madam Chair,

The recent convergence of four major anniversaries indicates a way forward for a world troubled by growing uncertainty about the validity of collective action. The 50th anniversary of the human rights Covenants reminds us of the strong role played by human rights principles in building societies that are more resilient, fairer and more cohesive. On its 30th anniversary, the Declaration on the right to development has helped to generate a landmark set of commitments with unprecedentedly transformative power, in the form of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The 10th anniversary of the Human Rights Council indicates the essential role that can be played by that body in upholding rights and altering the shape of world events. And the 10th anniversary of adoption of the Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities is a vivid reminder to leave no one behind, in any context. My Office will continue to assist the Human Rights Council to develop a strong focus on more strategic and comprehensive implementation of recommendations by all human rights mechanisms.

We continue to provide technical assistance to many States, and we support national processes for engaging with human rights mechanisms in 24 countries through the creation or strengthening of standing interministerial structures for reporting and follow-up – for instance in Bolivia and Tunisia. We are also further stepping up development of new tools to assist States to create national databases and indicators to follow up the recommendations by human rights mechanisms, with integrated tracking and reporting.

The Office also supports a constantly growing number of Special Procedures mandates. As of 31 July, there were 80 mandate-holders, for 56 mandates. During the reporting period they submitted 178 reports to the Human Rights Council and General Assembly, and conducted 96 official visits to 77 States and territories. Counting only up to the end of May 2016, mandate holders had transmitted 469 communications -- 85% of them joint communications -- to 122 States and 15 non-state actors. We have supported increasing consolidation of the Coordination Committee as the main body representing and acting on behalf of Special Procedures.

At the end of July, OHCHR was assisting or conducting Commissions mandated by the Human Rights Council to inquire, investigate, monitor and/or report on Burundi, South Sudan and the Syrian Arab Republic. We completed inquiries in Eritrea, Sri Lanka, Libya and the countries of the Lake Chad region affected by Boko Haram. The conceptualization and deployment of inquiries and other missions mobilised over 70 staff members of OHCHR. Building on the Office's extraordinary experience of well over 40 such investigations, we developed a new searchable Research Guide on International Commissions of Inquiry and Fact-Finding Missions and Other Investigations established by the United Nations.

In addition, teams were deployed to support our presences in Guatemala and Guinea to conduct human rights monitoring in the context of elections; to monitor human rights in the context of the political crisis in the Republic of Moldova; to strengthen the OHCHR office in Palestine in the context of an upsurge of violence; and to monitor the human rights situation of refugees and migrants in Bulgaria, Greece and Italy.

Madam Chair,

In line with Resolution 68/268, the treaty body capacity-building programme became fully operational in 2015, with 10 OHCHR staff members deployed to our regional offices and 6 based in Geneva. Under the programme, we conducted some 50 activities of direct assistance to States and 170 State officials, from 77 countries, were trained to act as trainers on treaty reporting. We count on Member States to fulfil the commitment of Resolution 68/268 to adjust the treaty bodies' meeting time to the workload every two years. In addition, we look forward to the mandated comprehensive review of the treaty body system by the General Assembly in 2020 to address the profound challenges the system continues to face.

Madam Chair,

The report before you samples some of the work of my Office across all our thematic priorities, and in every region.

They include our work to combat discrimination and promote equality, including for women; ethnic and religious minorities, and all racial groups; indigenous people; migrants; people with disabilities; people of any sexual orientations and gender identity; older people; children; people with albinism; and others.

Here I am proud to highlight our work in the context of the International Decade for People of African Descent, with significant impact in Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia and Guatemala. We are also working towards system-wide action on descent-based discrimination, with a priority focus on South Asia.

I further draw your attention to our continued support for a system-wide action plan for indigenous peoples, and our advocacy with the international financial institutions regarding indigenous peoples' rights, including land rights.

My staff have effected important work to promote the rights of women, including specialised training for judicial personnel regarding gender-related killings in numerous countries in the Americas, Africa and the Middle East and North Africa; and I note also our important work on sexual and reproductive health and rights, including guidance on maternal and child mortality. On the rights of people with disabilities, I refer you to our efforts to develop guidelines on humanitarian action, in line with our commitments at the World Humanitarian Summit.

Madam Chair,

Sound, impartial and accessible rule of law institutions are the foundation of all well-governed societies, and they are essential to upholding rights. The efforts of my staff to combat impunity and promote sound rule of law institutions, with an end to torture, included assistance and support in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Fiji, Guatemala, Guinea, Kazakhstan, Liberia, Libya, Mauritania, Mexico, Peru, Tajikistan and Tunisia. We provided advice to Sierra Leone, Thailand and Ukraine in their efforts to amend existing constitutions or draft new ones. In the Central African Republic, Colombia, Guinea, Libya, Mali, Nepal, the Sudan (Darfur), South Sudan, Sri Lanka and Tunisia, my Office provided advice on current or future accountability and transitional justice arrangements in the context of future peace agreements, emphasising as always the need for meaningful participation of women in all stages of peace building.

OHCHR continued to advocate for the end of the use of the death penalty worldwide. We have also maintained a steady focus on the need to uphold rights, including fair trial and due process rights, in the context of counter-terrorism operations, and we continue to co-chair the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force Working Group on Promoting and Protecting Human Rights and the Rule of Law while Countering Terrorism.

Madam Chair,

As the Secretary-General's Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism makes clear, measures which uphold human rights are far more effective in countering terrorism and preventing violent extremism. To support such measures, my Office has worked closely with UN Country Teams and national authorities in every region. However, I am deeply concerned by a persisting trend of restrictions of public freedoms in all regions, with curtailment of the rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly and the harassment and persecution of human rights defenders, civil society organizations and journalists. Frequently these practises are framed as part of the struggle against violent extremism – although in many cases neutral observers suggest that security terminology is being misused to silence critics. This criminalisation of dissent will not curb violent extremism; I fear it may instead fuel its spread. Widening the democratic space in every region remains an urgent priority for my Office.

Reprisals against those cooperating with OHCHR and other human rights mechanisms also continued to be an issue of concern in the period under review. The Secretary-General recently announced that our new Assistant Secretary-General, Andrew Gilmour, will lead UN-wide efforts to put an end to such practises, including stronger collection of information and appropriate responses to such abuses by all relevant parts of the UN system.

Madam Chair,

Regarding the integration of human rights in development and the economic sphere, strong advocacy and technical advice by my Office throughout the post-2015 process has helped to ground the 2030 Agenda in human rights, notably including the right to development. My Office and UN-Women are jointly developing a UN-wide framework for action on combating inequalities and discrimination in the context of the Agenda. OHCHR staff are also contributing actively to implementation at the national level, with technical advice and assistance across every region.

My Office is also a custodian agency, responsible for developing methodologies, collecting data and reporting on SDG indicators. We have consistently advocated a strong accountability mechanism, with universal, UPR style country reviews, integrating recommendations by all UN human rights monitoring mechanisms into the global HLPF review, to minimise redundancies and inconsistency, and to build on existing expertise. My Office has also organised numerous consultations on accountability and access to remedy for business-related human rights abuses, and we have issued practical guidance for States and judicial institutions.

Madam Chair,

Over the reporting period, my Office deepened its focus on the rights of migrants, in light of the increasingly large-scale and perilous movements of people, and the heightened vulnerability of all migrants to discrimination, exploitation, violence and prejudice. With our partners, we are developing a set of Principles and Practical Guidance on the human rights protection of migrants who are in vulnerable situations, but who will not receive refugee protection. Teams from my Office have also embarked on a series of monitoring visits to several key areas, as outlined above, and have trained numerous actors, including personnel of the European Union Naval Force set up to counter smuggling networks in the Mediterranean.

Unilateral and restrictive measures by States to the entry of migrants and refugees have led to terrible and unnecessary suffering. Fortunately, last month's Summit for Refugees and Migrants set in motion the process of developing a global compact on safe migration which will enable more rights-based, equitable, comprehensive and collective responses. OHCHR stands ready to support States to develop and implement this compact. There is an urgent need for a focus on protection approaches which embrace human mobility. While the factors which force people to leave their homes must be addressed – and much more support needs to be given to front-line countries which receive most migrants and refugees – we should also emphasise that the resilience, determination, and resourcefulness of migrants are assets for every country.

My Office and UNHCR face a number of similar challenges in ensuring respect for human rights in the context of migration and displacement, and we have agreed to further deepen our cooperation. Among the many agenda points we will pursue, I note our commitment to work more closely with the ICRC so we can, in common, more effectively uphold international human rights law, international refugee law, and international humanitarian law.

Madam Chair,

In the course of this reporting period, my staff has demonstrated outstanding dedication, particularly in our field offices, where the work of assistance to Member States is at its most salient.. They have engaged with governments and other counterparts to identify and address a wide range of human rights issues, and provided relevant and timely technical advice and assistance in the face of many chronic and emerging challenges.

Madam Chair,

A retreat into narrow, unilateral policies is harmful to the interests of all the world’s peoples. When these policies involve decreasing emphasis on human rights, indifference to international legal commitments, and rejection of vital principles, this compounds the damage done to peace, development and rights. The only path to solutions for the challenges facing humanity is to seek consensus based on common interests and common values; and to strengthen – not weaken – the wisdom humanity has accumulated. Irrespective of the resources at the disposal of my Office, we will continue to work to assist States to promote and protect the human rights of their people, in order to build societies respectful of human dignity, human equality, and human freedom.

Thank you.