Horasis plenary meetingVideo by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet

1 October 2020

I am pleased to address you today, at this time of multiple and massive global crises.

A climate catastrophe.

A pandemic that has claimed one million lives.

A severe recession – the deepest since World War II, threatening to push well over 100 million people into extreme poverty.

Times of unprecedented challenges require unprecedented action.

COVID-19 has shown us that our business as usual is just not good enough.

We cannot go back to the "normality" that made our societies so vulnerable, fragile and unequal.

The pandemic has brought us to a crossroads.

We must build back better.

It demands tackling structural discrimination and addressing the inequality pandemic exposed and magnified by COVID-19.

People already in vulnerable situations, have suffered the worst from the health and socio-economic impacts of COVID 19.

Among them are women and girls, due to longstanding discrimination and inequality.

Gender equality is not an optional extra, and it cannot be cast aside in times of crisis. It is essential to peaceful, just and resilient societies.

We will not meet these challenges if we're playing with just half the team.

Colleagues,

In today's context, social protections can be crucial, life-sustaining tools to enable access to health care and education, protect the right to housing and food, and shield people from extreme poverty.

Social protection for all is a distant dream for most of the world's population. According to ILO, 71 per cent of the people alive today have no social security coverage, or only partial and inadequate coverage -- including almost two-thirds of the world's children. There are 1.6 billion informal workers and 0.4 billion precarious workers worldwide, representing 61 percent of the global workforce. Women, who often take jobs in the informal economy, are frequently deprived of social protections.

Building those social protections is the right thing to do, the smart thing to do – and it is affordable.

As ILO has shown, a universal social protection scheme that include allowances for all children; maternity benefits for all women with newborns; benefits for all persons with severe disabilities; and universal old-age pensions will cost an average 1.6 per cent of a developing country's GDP.

Sustainable recovery efforts will be efforts that advance universal social protection, including universal health coverage. They will integrate access to education, protect the right to housing and food, and shield people from extreme poverty. And they will be grounded in inclusive, participatory processes and ensure equal opportunities for all.

Everyone must benefit from rights-based response and recovery efforts.

And I cannot stress this enough: any vaccine against COVID-19 must be distributed as a global public good.

The Secretary-General has called for "a New Social Contract and a New Global Deal that create equal opportunities for all and respect the rights and freedoms of all."

For that, strong global cooperation and solidarity will be essential.

I am optimistic. Together, we can rebuild societies that uphold human rights. The right to life, to health, to education. To food and shelter, social security and a fair trial. Freedom from discrimination of any kind. Freedom of expression and the right to privacy. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Freedom from torture and from arbitrary detention.

Human rights are the tools to build more stable, more peaceful and resilient societies.

Better ones.

Thank you for standing up for them.

I wish you a fruitful session.