Dear colleagues, friends, students,

It is a pleasure to be with you, and I look forward to your thoughts about how we can forge solutions to the many challenges we are seeing to human rights across the world.

First: war. One quarter of humanity is living today in places affected by conflict. At the end of last year, the Peace Institute in Oslo, which works closely with my Office, found that the intensity, length and number of conflicts worldwide are at their highest levels since the Cold War: 55 conflicts, lasting on average between 8 and 11 years.

In Ukraine, in Sudan, in Ethiopia, in Myanmar and across the Sahel – to take just a few examples – the level of atrocities and suffering is devastating. The armed conflict in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel, after just five weeks, has seen over 11,500 people killed, including more than 4500 children – and I want to emphasise that the Gaza Ministry of Health has not been lable to update those numbers since 15 November. The war has lit a firestorm of hate speech across the Middle East and the entire world. The level of Antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks, in real life and online, is deeply shocking.

This brutal dead-end of destruction and suffering is unbearable. We must do all we can to stop the carnage. And beyond the current warfare, we must encourage all parties to stop the continuing, cyclical churn of violence .

Time and again, we look back and see that conflict could have been prevented.

In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, for example, my Office has repeatedly issued reports that recommend practical, feasible steps towards de-escalation of tensions and overcoming human rights violations. Injustice; discrimination; oppression; extreme inequalities; a lack of accountability for human rights violations: these are among the factors that will sadly make violence more likely.

The good news is that with good leadership we can address them. Justice and respect for the human rights of every member of society are the keys that unlock the door to real, enduring peace.

Before I took up my mandate as the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, I worked for 30 years in situations of failed prevention. I was working with and for refugees –in places where conflict had erupted, with dramatic impact on civilians; or where long years of discrimination metastasized into ethnic cleansing; or where deprivation had become so overwhelming that people were massively compelled to flee.

Now, I feel my utmost priority has to be prevention – and solutions. Because that is what human rights bring. They state clearly what every human being is entitled to – a life that is free from fear and from the deprivation of certain essential resources – and in advancing those rights, they bring solutions to the root causes of preventable suffering.

They bring justice, accountability, and an impartial, accessible and independent rule of law. International human rights law, and the law of war, or IHL, have been developed precisely to diminish the horror and massively damaging impact of crises such as those I have discussed, and I urge all parties to ensure respect for that law. Accountability for past violations and abuses of human rights – whether they were perpetrated by agents of a State or by armed groups or other non-State parties – provides not only justice for individual victims: it brings deterrence into the picture. 

Human rights also bring an end to discrimination – and its deeply wounding daily humiliations and obstructions to the full realization of a person's – and her community's choices and potential. The scope and magnitude of discrimination against women and girls constitutes one of the world's most overwhelming human rights violations today. In Afghanistan, for example, it is unparalleled, contravening every established belief system. This repression and persecution of women constitute a clenched fist around Afghanistan’s economy and its entire future, and the work of ending this is urgent. The violence that is so disproportionately inflicted on people of African descent by law enforcement officers in many countries is another urgent example of discrimination's deep structural harm.

Extreme poverty and skyrocketing inequalities constitute another pervasive human rights failure. We need to build economies that advance people’s rights and well-being, in order to ensure not only sustainable development, but also social harmony, trust and enduring peace. A human rights economy is one in which the aim of advancing human rights informs all national economic, fiscal, monetary, investment and business decisions.  These are  national measures that will bring immense benefit to millions of people.

In addition, the current global debt emergency that has hit developing countries creates immense impact on people's human rights ­– crushing hopes and lives, and driving bitter grievances. Dramatically scaled-up financing, as well as reforms of the international financial institutions, are urgently needed to meet these challenges, and my Office, and the United Nations as a whole, strongly advocate human rights-based reforms to the global financial architecture. A key step must be to enable States to ring-fence crucial human rights investments from the need to pay international debt.

One last point, in a list – which could be far longer – of human rights-based measures that can have immense benefit for individuals, their societies, and prospects for peace in the world.

Harsh restriction of tcivic space is the Achilles heel – the fatal weakness – of governance. If there is one message that I deliver again and again to Ambassadors and Heads of State or Government, it is this: ensuring that people can speak freely – and critically – and that they can fully and meaningfully participate in decisions will build more effective policy.

It will build stronger, more resilient societies. It will enable every member of society to contribute their strengths and talents to the work of finding the best possible solution to economic, social and political problems. And it will ensure greater trust for the authorities. Listen to the people – and in particular, to victims and human rights defenders – because they have the deepest experience of the problems, and the best advice about solutions.

These are all measures that help to prevent conflict. They are also among the steps that can de-escalate conflict, by resolving some of its root causes; and they contribute to making a peace that is real and which can endure, with development that is sustainable because it is inclusive.

They are also key guidelines for addressing challenges as crucial and complex as climate change, runaway pollution and the obliteration of biodiversity. Acting to limit the triple planetary crisis, and upholding our right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, are the defining struggles of our generation. Acting now to address these issues will unquestionably prevent enormous harm in the future. It will prevent the suffering, impoverishment and forced displacement of millions of people. It will prevent the degradation and erosion of millions of hectares of fertile land, and the intensification of periods of heat at levels that are lethal to human life.

In August this year, I went to Iraq, and in that cradle of so many civilisations, I witnessed a small piece of the environmental horror that our world is already enduring. In Basra – where 30 years ago, date palms lined lush canals – drought, searing heat, extreme pollution and fast-depleting supplies of fresh water are creating barren landscapes of rubble and dust.

This spiralling damage is a human rights emergency.

Worldwide, climate change is pushing millions of people into hunger. It is destroying hopes, opportunities, homes and lives. In the Sahel region, a recent report by my Office outlines the profound impact of climate change-related soil degradation and declining food production on income, health, resource competition, conflict, and displacement – a vicious cycle that now spins deeper with every planting season. Temperatures in the Sahel are rising much faster than the global average; even if the global temperature rise is kept to an unlikely 1.5 degrees, the impact on the people of the Sahel will be permanent and devastating.

Across the Sahel, we can see very clearly how climate change, conflict, poverty, discrimination and lack of accountability feed into each other – creating a vast knot of issues that strangle the lives and rights of people.  But this is the case everywhere, as the climate crisis continues to generate profound and increasing threats to human rights. The dignity and the very survival of communities, of nations – and ultimately, all of humanity – is at stake.

So, again, how do we prevent this? Where are the solutions?

Notably, of course, we need global solutions. The governments and people of the Sahel, and many other regions that are experiencing extreme harm, did not contribute significantly to climate change. 

In a few days, global climate negotiations will resume in Dubai. It is absolutely essential that they lead to decisive and equitable action to prevent the worst impacts of climate change, and to remedy the impacts that can no longer be prevented. We have to ensure that Governments, businesses and individuals prioritise the interests of humanity over their short-term, narrowly defined self-interest.

The fact is, the COP talks have to date fallen far short of what is needed to stop climate change and remedy its worst impacts. The world is dangerously off-track to meet the promises made in the Paris Agreement. Recent discussions on loss and damage are an example of  this. The climate justice movement, and many of the countries most vulnerable to climate change, struggled for years  for an agreement to establish a new loss and damage fund, finally achieving this objective at COP27. But the recommendations that have been sent to COP28 for operationalization of that fund do not satisfy the demands of those most affected by climate change. 

A strong governance framework that is grounded in human rights. Environmental and social safeguards. An inclusive and participatory Board. And a fair funding mechanism. These should be viewed as essentials – not a point of contention, or of trade-offs in negotiation.

We have to do better.

Point one: We must protect civic space.

On the climate and environmental issues that affect us all, key decisions continue to be made behind closed doors – and are often influenced by fossil fuel lobbies. Environmental human rights defenders working to protect communities and land from environmental harm are often vilified, attacked and even killed. Their rights to participation, freedom of expression, and access to information and to justice must be secured. We must ensure the free, meaningful and safe participation in all climate discussions of all those most affected by climate change, including women and Indigenous Peoples.

Point two: climate action must advance equality and equity.

Adaptation strategies and all other measures need to prioritize the situation of people most affected by climate change. Funding must go first to the people who need it most.

Point three: We need to ensure access to effective remedy, and accountability, for climate-related harm.

Point four: we need resources for a rapid and just transition that advances human rights, including the right to a healthy environment.

We must ensure the rapid and equitable phase-out of all fossil fuels. We need to see effective regulation of businesses, and accountability for environmental harms. Globally, we need a concrete plan to ensure that sufficient resources are mobilized to ensure that climate damage is stopped; that people are helped to adapt; and that, to the extent possible, the loss and damage which they suffer from climate change is remedied. We must also call out fake climate solutions. I deplore the attempts by the fossil fuel industry at global climate talks and elsewhere to greenwash their reputation and derail our goal of decarbonization.

Nationally, transparent and accountable governance is critical, to repair harms and build resilience. Corruption is also a climate issue. It is vital to ensure that climate finance funds reach those most affected and most vulnerable to harm.

In every country, we also need to see full participation and consultation on environmental laws and measures – notably for those who are most at risk – and protection of people who raise concerns about environmental harm and the policies that produce them. 

 Bashing climate protests; designing laws that unfairly restrict activities that call the public's attention to climate harms; and allowing attacks on activists to go unpunished: these are tactics that ultimately harm all States and all human beings. We need to fix this urgently.

So: Conflict. Discrimination. Poverty. The suffocation of civic space. The triple planetary crisis. These are five immense challenges that threaten our rights and our world, and they fuel each other. We face the compounding effects of all of them – while also confronting a surge of new human rights challenges, notably in the digital realm, including artificial intelligence and surveillance.

Yes, it is a dark tableau. But there is hope. Let me end this discussion with a story.

It is a story about the wisdom of our ancestors – at a time whose darkness and uncertainty resonates with our own.

Seventy-five years ago, World War Two had just ended. Two World Wars had just been fought in a space of just 20 years and at the cost of millions of lives, and many devastated countries. Horrific genocide had used the most abominable system of death to murder millions of people. The atomic bomb brought death of a new kind and scale into the world. Millions of people were forced to leave their homes and take root in completely unfamiliar, challenging places.

And from every region of the world, countries came together to establish the United Nations, and create a declaration that would end the churning cycles of horror and destruction and poverty.

They came up with a map. A text that showed, for themselves and for future generations, the path that would lead away from war. The path towards the reconciliation of disputes. They planned, and mapped, the steps that would build societies that would be more fair, more equal, and therefore more resilient.

They laid out civil and political rights; economic, social and cultural rights.

The right to live free from any form of discrimination, arbitrary detention and torture; and to fair trial and to equal protection of the law. The rights to education and to adequate food; healthcare; housing; social protections, and to fair and just conditions of work. Freedom of expression, opinion, and the right to privacy. Freedom of association and peaceful assembly, and to participate, freely and meaningfully, in public affairs. Freedom of religion or belief.

These and other rights, inherent in every one of us were laid out in a text that has become a landmark on the path to greater human dignity.

Over the past 75 years, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has guided tremendous progress in countries across the world.

It has inspired vibrant, creative, powerful activism and solidarity, empowering people to claim their rights and to engage actively in their communities and societies.

How could such a simple text guide such profound transformation?

Because "recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace.” Greater respect for human rights – all human rights, building on each other ­– constructs more sustainable development. More enduring peace. A safer future.

This is an extraordinarily powerful truth.

Societies that are grounded in human rights are better equipped to withstand shocks – whether those shocks stem from natural disasters, conflicts, a pandemic or global recession.

They offer their people – regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other characteristic – a better life. A life that is more free from misery and fear.

Economies and societies that are inclusive and participative; in which opportunities, resources and services are equitably shared; and where governance is accountable, deliver justice, opportunities and hope.

At the core of the United Nations, and all the work that it has done to ward off war and poverty, is that shared conviction that every human being is equal in dignity and in rights. Women, people with disabilities, people from every religion or ethnic background or sexual orientation or nationality – every one of us is born equal.

And it is precisely in our era of rising storms that the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights can help us navigate to safety. Its essential values, which connect all of humanity, were set out to ward off horror and destruction, and they have been tried and tested. They embody the power of unity of purpose and the potential for transformative action – both within societies, and globally.

It is absolutely critical, now – precisely in this time of terrible crisis – that we rekindle the spirit, impulse and vitality that led to the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so that we can rebuild trust in each other, and move forward, united.

Thank you.