Monday 22 June – 12:00 to 14:00
Palais des Nations – Room XXV

Colleagues and friends,

I am pleased to jointly open with IPU this important side event on the role of parliamentarians in the work of the Human Rights Council and in particular of the universal periodic review. My gratitude goes to our IPU partner, as well as to the States supporting this initiative, Ecuador, Morocco, the Philippines, Romania and Uruguay.

This side event comes as the culmination of a series of regional seminars that were launched in early 2014 which covered Europe, Latin America, Africa and in February of this year, Asia.

At the human rights office, we are very much committed to encourage more interaction between national parliaments and UN mechanisms for the protection of human rights. This interaction is acknowledged in and encouraged by a number of UN documents and resolutions such as Human Rights Council resolution 26/29 adopted in June last year.

Since the panel discussion held in May 2013 by the Council, our Office has been using every opportunity to recall the leading role of parliaments in the promotion and protection of human rights. As democratically elected bodies, they incarnate the fundamental right of citizens to participate in the conduct of public affairs. Parliaments shape, approve and vote legislation that directly or indirectly affects the human rights situation in their countries – and they decide on the allocation of resources through the voting of the budget.

The role of parliaments and parliamentarians is therefore crucial to ensure that States respect and implement their international human rights obligations and voluntary pledges and commitments.

Despite this, parliaments have traditionally not been heavily involved in international efforts. In the last few years this has changed, and parliamentary involvement is now considered as a way to add democratic legitimacy to the work and recommendations of international bodies. Parliaments are a natural counterpart for the human rights office and for the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms.

Nevertheless, practice has shown that, in many instances, parliaments have been involved in a way or another in the process – in fact, most of the recommendations emanating from the UPR require either a direct or indirect involvement of the parliaments.

This is one of the reasons why, the human rights office in partnership with the IPU has engaged to strengthen this role of parliaments.

In our four regional seminars, several good practices on the involvement of parliaments in the various phases of the UPR process have been shared:

- Parliamentarians have, for example, been part of the official delegation which introduced the report to the working group.
- In specific instances they were given the floor to respond to questions in relation to the incorporation of definitions of human rights violation in the national legislation, as well as with regard to the efforts to revise the national legislation on the creation of an integrated system for the protection of the rights of vulnerable groups.
- Parliaments have also been part of inter-institutional structures established to follow-up on and implement the State’s international human rights obligations. Such structures were created as permanent bodies and were given an oversight function on the measures taken by the relevant ministries to implement human rights recommendations.
To inspire more such engagement, OHCHR, together with the IPU, is in the process of finalizing a first set of compilation of good practices of engagement of Parliamentarians, drawing from the various examples shared during the regional seminars. The compilation will soon be made available in both English and French.

Colleagues and friends,

Our efforts are directed not only at apprising parliaments of the work of the Council and of the UPR but also at sensitizing the Human Rights Council to the importance of securing more concrete and institutionalized interaction with parliaments through the IPU.

I am glad to see as panellists a number of distinguished Ambassadors whose countries are taking a leading role in this debate. We are all looking forward to hearing from them how they would propose to strengthen the interaction between the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms, national parliaments and the IPU.

I would conclude by reiterating the commitment of our office to engage and consolidate its cooperation with all three branches of States and to continue to work closely with the IPU with regard to the legislative branch. We are also engaging closely with other key actors committed to human rights promotion and protection -- and in this regard I particularly welcome the participation of UPRinfo in today's event, with whom we work closely in strengthening the UPR mechanism, including through greater parliamentarian and civil society engagement.

I thank you for your attention.