Statement by the High Commissioner at the Human Rights Mainstreaming Fund High Level Partner Event

Distinguished panellists,

Excellencies,

Colleagues and Friends,

Thank you to the Governments of Sweden and Norway for hosting this important event. I am very pleased to participate.

As we speak, our world is mired in growing crisis – intensifying conflict, deepening inequalities, increased polarisation and a climate emergency threatening our lives in increasingly direct and severe ways.

Dignity and human life are under profound threat around the globe. More than 11 million people have been forced to flee their homes following the Russian armed attack on Ukraine. The war in Syria has torn apart millions of lives for more than a decade now. In Myanmar, last year’s military coup has plunged the country into ever-expanding humanitarian emergency, and the economy is on the brink of collapse. And we are witnessing severe and widespread human rights violations linked to conflict in the north of Ethiopia.

It is painful to recognise that these crises reflect just a small portion of the upheaval we face as a global community.

On top of this, all of our societies are still reeling from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, a crisis which has pushed marginalised groups even further behind, led to a dramatic rise in poverty and inequalities and exposed decades of underinvestment in public health and social protection.

We stand at a juncture, and we must choose the right path. What we do know is that the most powerful tool we have at our disposal to address this level of global crisis - and recover from it - is human rights.

This is a moment for the UN system to commit to renew and reenergise previous approaches and strive towards better coherence, and greater effectiveness and credibility.

The reform of the UN’s Development System and the new vision for the role of the Resident Coordinator delivers a strong potential to open new spaces for human rights.

Mainstreaming human rights means bringing them to the core of all action that the United Nations undertakes.

At such a critical point in history, the Human Rights Mainstreaming Fund has proven to be a remarkable tool for all of the UN. The Fund supports the UN Development System’s efforts to respond to the call by Member States to assist them in their efforts to respect and fulfil their human rights obligations and commitments, including in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the pledge to leave no-one behind.

For more than 10 years, the Fund and several UN agencies have worked jointly to put human rights at the centre of UN responses around the world, leveraging agencies’ expertise and operational reach.

Our Human Rights Advisers programme is one of the key successes of this Fund. Over the last decade, it has deployed Advisers to 54 countries, supporting Resident Coordinators to lead the human rights agenda on the ground. Resident Coordinators have repeatedly emphasised the game-changing role of Human Rights Advisers, their strategic value in better leveraging the UN’s mandate, and their importance in supporting them carry out their human rights leadership roles.

It is critical that we maintain this momentum and scale up our collective support to Resident Coordinators and UN country teams in order to deliver on our promise to further integrate human rights in the UN’s development work and in response to the increasing demand from Resident Coordinators, UN country teams and national partners,

The support of Member States to this programme remains essential to its ability to thrive. Through funding contributions – and also through recognition of its support to human rights progress, and strong political backing – we have successfully sustained and expanded this programme for an entire decade.

This essential support helps us make human rights a reality for all.

The Fund is also supporting the Surge Initiative, a programme, which for the last 18 months has been working hand-in-hand with UN country teams. Composed of economists, development, economic and social rights experts working for the field, the Surge Initiative is proving to be a critical complement to the work of the Human Rights Advisers.

Together, they are strengthening links between States’ human rights obligations and economic policy making. They are focusing on country-level implementation of economic and social rights, as well as on improving fiscal transparency and public participation.

The Fund’s vital support to the Surge Initiative is helping it advise on building forward better after the pandemic. The support ensures it can follow in the footsteps of the UN Secretary-General’s call for a ‘renewed social contract anchored in human rights.’ It is helping us strive towards economies that invest in human rights and work for everyone.

Excellencies,

By fostering effective collaboration within UN country teams, our Human Rights Advisers and Surge Initiative teams are making a real and tangible impact in making sure human rights are prioritised where it matters.

Let me turn now to some concrete examples of their work.

In Malawi, tension and violence between Muslim and Christian communities was exacerbated recently when a number of Christian-managed schools in the south of the country refused to educate girls wearing a hijab. Five schools were closed, leaving 10,000 children out of school. The Human Rights Adviser engaged with leaders of both communities, opening discussion on international human rights standards on education, non-discrimination and freedom of religion or belief. They reached an agreement that Muslim girls can wear a hijab at school, if they wish, and the schools that were closed re-opened.

The Human Rights Adviser and Surge Initiative experts have been working together with key State actors and indigenous leaders in Costa Rica to establish an early warning system to protect indigenous rights in identified communities. Additionally, and based on the recommendations of the UN human rights mechanisms, a joint UN strategic plan was developed for the protection of indigenous peoples’ rights.

In Cambodia, the Surge Initiative team is working closely with OHCHR and the rest of the UN country team to pave the way for joint strategic advocacy to curb inequalities as part of the country’s COVID-19 socioeconomic recovery plan, especially for marginalised communities.

And in Tunisia, our joint project with UNDP is supporting civil society organisations in the Medenine region to develop the first spotlight report on Sustainable Development Goal 16 to promote peace, justice and strong institutions.

Excellencies,

While we have ensured the firm anchoring of human rights in all the key elements of the reform of the UN’s Development System, our collective focus now must be on implementation.

This requires urgent - and united - action.

An inter-agency review of the Common Country Analyses and Cooperation Frameworks - which has almost been completed - shows that there remains a pressing need to step up human rights ambition at the country level.

This review – that was carried out under the Secretary-General’s Call to Action - follows a similar inter-agency assessment of UN COVID-19 socio economic response plans in 2020, which also pointed to significant shortcomings with regard to integrating human rights.

As the UN, we need a stronger focus on protecting fundamental freedoms and civic space. We have to do more to address discrimination and violence against disadvantaged groups such as indigenous peoples, LGBTQI+ people and racial and ethnic minorities. Finally, and importantly, the UN needs to fill the void between economic decision-making and human rights. Economic policy advice and socio-economic programmes, including health and social protection programmes, need to be better anchored in human rights in order to tackle persistent and structural inequalities.

We must maximise the recommendations from the human rights mechanisms and ensure human rights are central to the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks, the most important planning tool we have for the UN on the ground.

And in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development , we need to continue to reinforce the integration of human rights.

This will require effective collaboration with Governments to ensure they are meeting their commitments. It will require working with civil society, and importantly, with the very individuals and communities whose human rights we work to promote and protect.

Excellencies,

My Office is committed to implement the blueprint outlined in the Secretary-General’s Call to Action for Human Rights and his vision laid out in Our Common Agenda.

This new social contract is our guiding light. It will help us break down silos and to speak and act with one voice as one UN family.

For the UN family to fully meet all of these expectations, it is imperative that we strengthen the human rights discourse with a strong focus on equality, non-discrimination and indivisibility of rights.

The Human Rights Mainstreaming Fund is a crucial resource to help the UN family achieve the goal of firmly securing human rights into the core of the UN’s development work and to bring about human rights change where it matters most

We count on your support to make this a reality.

We count on your ambition and your vision to ensure equality, dignity and humanity are front and centre in the kind of world we are all striving towards.

I wish you an inspiring discussion ahead.

Thank you.