19 June 2009



Mr. President,
Distinguished Members of the Human Rights Council,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Mr. President, I wish to highly commend you for your skilful stewardship of this Council. Indeed, as a newcomer last year, I quickly learned that I could rely on your expertise, professionalism and personal warmth.

In my first address to this Council I talked about the UN principles that would guide and inform my tenure at OHCHR, that is, impartiality, integrity, and independence. Clearly, these principles have also underpinned your presidency of the Council. As your mandate comes to completion today, let me recall that your constant efforts to reach consensus even on the most controversial issues, your availability to dialogue, hard work, flexibility and open-mindedness have been greatly appreciated. Your insistence that all contributions to the Council’s debate be presented in a constructive and respectful manner will have a lasting impact on the tone and content of the Council’s discussions.

Under your stewardship, everybody got a fair audience. You have always carefully listened to concerns and ideas expressed by civil society and insisted on their rights and on the centrality of their contributions.

Charles Malik, one of the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, talked about the need for an inspired and therefore inspiring leadership in the pursuit of human rights. My OHCHR colleagues and I sincerely thank you for providing such high-quality leadership. I am confident that your successor will display the same virtues of wisdom and temperance that were the hallmarks of the two preceding presidencies of the Human Rights Council. I look forward to our cooperation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I also wish to take this opportunity to welcome the new Members of the Council and further acknowledge the contribution made by States that have completed their membership tenure with this body.

Let me recall that the General Assembly entrusted this Council to promote “…universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all, without distinction of any kind and in a fair and equal manner.” This is the mandate its members were elected to safeguard in the interest of all stakeholders.

One of the most significant innovations of the Council is its assessment of the human rights record of every country in the world. By the end of 2011, all 192 Member States will have had a first Universal Periodic Review (UPR), and the second cycle will begin. At that time, we will be better positioned to assess whether the UPR has had a positive impact on the ground. But there are already hopeful signs that countries have taken the UPR endeavor and follow-up very seriously.

Information used for the review comes from many sources. Governments, civil society groups, national human rights organizations, the human rights treaty bodies, Special Rapporteurs and other experts participate in the process. As a result of the UPR, many States under review invited Special Procedures mandate holders to visit their countries and pledged to implement their recommendations. The UPR process can also prove to be a catalyst for increasing ratification of human rights treaties, and for the acceptance of optional monitoring procedures. The UPR process already appears to have prompted some States to accept treaties and their procedures, submit reports, as well as to prioritize implementation of treaty bodies’ recommendations.

Let me also note that, in addition to the UPR process, at each session of the Council many country visits and a variety of human rights issues are discussed in the context of the interactive dialogues with special rapporteurs. This is quite unprecedented. Moreover, hundreds of non-governmental representatives from all over the world attend each Council meeting, contribute to the decision making process, make proposals and channel their comments, concerns and grievances.

Building on this foundation, we must constantly ensure that the Council is well equipped to address emergencies, as well as chronic human rights situations, whatever the format of its discussions might be.

Although the focus of human rights work needs to be on implementation of existing standards, a vital aspect of the Council’s activities concerns the identification of normative gaps. Since the Council’s inception, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol have come to fruition. A crucial Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has also been approved. The rights of indigenous peoples have been enshrined in an important Declaration on this subject.

I wish to point out that a number of countries that have become members of the Council have genuinely committed themselves to introduce changes in their domestic human rights policies.

We are now entering a two-year period leading to the review of the status of the Council by the General Assembly. In 2011 the Council is also mandated by the General Assembly to review its work and functioning. Both processes will provide an excellent opportunity to take stock of the work done so far, as well as to envisage how to better carry it out in the future. The incoming presidency will be tasked to begin discussions on these institutional review processes without prejudice to the Council’s substantive work.

It is not my intention to pre-empt that debate. Let me just note that it will be of crucial importance to continue to gather, with open-mindedness and frankness, a plurality of States’ views even on those divisive and thorny issues that defy quick consensus and readily apparent solutions. Such plurality must not stifle the debate. Rather, these opinions should converge on a shared ground that, far from representing solely a minimum common denominator, maximizes results instead.

As the premier international body with a comprehensive mandate for the promotion and protection of human rights, the Human Rights Council must strengthen its ability to address all human rights issues in a flexible and constructive matter, irrespective of the format of discussion and of its settings. What ultimately matters is the incisiveness of its responses.

As they look into the future of the Council, States should also maintain a fair perspective regarding those mechanisms that have served the Council well and were instrumental in building its credibility, as well as the very identity of the United Nations human rights system as a whole. In particular, the work of Special Procedures must continue to provide those essential building blocks upon which the influence, independence and incisiveness of this Council hinges.

One of the key benchmarks in judging the Council’s performance and impact will be whether this body has been able and willing to effectively weave into its deliberations the views and contributions of other stakeholders, such as treaty bodies, national human rights institutions, and civil society. The cumulative positive effect of the contributions of all these actors will assist members in carrying out the high mandate bestowed upon this Council.

For its part, OHCHR will continue to assist the Council to the best of our abilities in our customary constructive, objective and balanced manner. I wish the Council Members the best of inspiration in their endeavour.

Thank you.