Video Launch of the Sustainable Recovery Pledge

Statement by Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

29 June 2021

Thank you for the opportunity to participate in the launch of this important initiative.

At a time of cascading human rights setbacks, the Sustainable Recovery Pledge marks our determination to ensure that human rights laws and principles guide societies to a sustainable recovery.

The human rights scars of this pandemic are deep. Extreme poverty and hunger are rising. Vital gains, including for women's equality, are being reversed. Cracks in the fabric of our societies are growing deeper, and the huge gaps between rich and poorer countries are becoming wider and more lethal.

We have got to learn the lessons of COVID-19.

Among them: steps to uphold universal health care, universal social protections and other fundamental rights will protect all of society from harm, and make all of us more resilient.

Measures that advance everyone's right to participate fully in public affairs; steps that ensure the widest possible space for civic freedoms; and policies that dismantle and eradicate all forms of discrimination create more cohesive communities, which benefit from the full contributions of everyone.

So, for me lesson one is that human rights make us safer and stronger.

Lesson two: we need joint action. To act effectively, we must act together, to fairly distribute vaccines and help each other combat the impacts of COVID-19.

Together with all UN human rights mechanisms, the UN Human Rights Office that I lead seeks to maximize the force of our partnerships across the UN system – and well beyond the UN system – so that we can make sure that human rights are at the heart of efforts to respond and recover.

I welcome the Pledge's commitment to aligning development priorities – and resources – with human rights goals. Injustice generates grievance, protest and violence. Only development that effectively and perceptibly addresses deep-seated grievances related to discrimination, inequalities and other human rights violations can deliver greater well-being and social cohesion.

I also commend the Pledge's focus on civic space, scrutiny, social dialogue, participation, the protection of free speech and accountability.

Navigating a clear way out of the complex COVID-19 crisis, and towards an inclusive, green, sustainable and resilient future, will be the work of this generation of world leaders – or their downfall. The Pledge is an important signpost – and now we all need to walk the talk.