Human Rights Council Opens Fifty-Fifth Regular Session and Holds Minute of Silence in Memory of All Victims of Human Rights Violations Worldwide
The Human Rights Council this morning opened its fifty-fifth regular session, hearing statements from the President of the General Assembly, the United Nations Secretary-General, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.
Omar Zniber, President of the Human Rights Council, called on the Council to observe a minute of silence in the memory of all victims of human rights violations worldwide. Issues of food security and the climate crisis lay at the heart of the Council’s concerns. The fifty-fifth session was the longest since the Council’s creation. Its main objective needed to be achieving concrete progress in the field of human rights. Mr. Zniber called on all stakeholders to contribute to this goal.
Dennis Francis, President of the seventy-eighth session of the General Assembly, said it was deeply concerning that human rights were under grave and increasing threat around the world. Conflicts and climate impacts had left a staggering 300 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance, some 114 million of them being refugees and other displaced peoples. The United Nations needed to use its commanding platforms to speak out in the demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for the opening of corridors to render urgently needed assistance and care to the 1.5 million displaced and unhoused Palestinians.
António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General, said the world was becoming less safe by the day. The Security Council’s lack of unity on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and on Israel’s military operations in Gaza following the horrific terror attacks by Hamas on 7 October, had severely undermined its authority. The Council needed serious reform to its composition and working methods. Mr. Guterres repeated his call for a humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages in Gaza.
Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Council had entered into session at a time of seismic global shocks. The pain and the slaughter of so many people in the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Haiti and other places around the world were unbearable. Human rights were the only essential guarantees anchoring societies during turbulence and disarray. The United Nations was uniquely equipped to enable States to discuss and resolve pressing global issues.
Ignazio Cassis, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, said democracy had regressed to the level of the mid-1980s. The international community had a responsibility to stop this negative dynamic. This year, 2024, was an important test for democracy: elections were scheduled in more than 64 countries. Half of the world's population were called to the polls. Many citizens would be called upon to make use of their right to information, freedom of speech and possibility of peaceful assembly. The United Nations must ensure the protection of civic space and fair and free elections.
The webcast of the Human Rights Council meetings can be found here. All meeting summaries can be found here. Documents and reports related to the Human Rights Council’s fifty-fifth regular session can be found here.
The Council will start its high-level segment at 10 a.m.
Statements
OMAR ZNIBER, President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, said the international community was opening the fifty-fifth session of the Human Rights Council while the world was facing crises of various natures. He expressed hope that during the session, they would find common solutions to crises affecting all regions of the world. He called on the Council to observe a minute of silence in the memory of all victims of human rights violations worldwide.
The high-level representation at the opening of the Human Rights Council reaffirmed the Council’s importance. The world needed to preserve both civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights. Issues of food security and the climate crisis lay at the heart of the Council’s concerns. They impacted on the enjoyment of human rights throughout the world. New technologies such as artificial intelligence had the potential to affect the human rights of the most vulnerable. The Council needed to pay due attention to these issues. The Council was the central United Nations actor responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights. It had discharged this task in spite of geopolitical tensions. Reform of the body was of paramount importance. Faithful assessments of the Council’s effectiveness and efficiency needed to be carried out through the General Assembly by 2026.
The liquidity crisis that the United Nations was experiencing had a severe impact on the Council’s work. The fifty-fifth session was the longest since the Council’s creation. Its main objective needed to be achieving concrete progress in the field of human rights. Mr. Zniber called on all stakeholders to contribute to this goal.
DENNIS FRANCIS, President of the General Assembly, said 75 years after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it was deeply concerning that human rights were under grave and increasing threat around the world. Conflicts and climate impacts had left a staggering 300 million people in dire need of humanitarian assistance, some 114 million of them being refugees and other displaced peoples. In the Gaza Strip, over 90 per cent of the population were displaced, teetering on the brink of starvation, and trapped in the depths of an impending public health catastrophe. The war in Ukraine, now in its third year, had only grown more entrenched, with no foreseeable signs of cessation in the short term.
Haiti had descended into lawlessness, while persistent violence across Yemen, Sudan, Myanmar and elsewhere had exacerbated the human rights situation. In the Sahel, the impact of strife and environmental stressors had led to a resurgence of famine, jeopardising the right to food and proper nutrition for millions. These regressive events had called into question the depth of the commitment to the principles of human rights, as universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated.
The world must not fail the victims of human rights violations. The United Nations needed to use its commanding platforms to speak out in the demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for the opening of corridors to render urgently needed assistance and care to the 1.5 million displaced and unhoused Palestinians. Furthermore, donor States should uphold and sustain their contributions to the critical funding necessary for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to discharge its mandated responsibilities to the Palestinians. The Agency had and continued to be an indispensable lifeline of support to the Palestinians. It was vital not to stand-by as callous observers, and be seen as complicit in the expanding web of dehumanisation.
The world continued to witness frightening setbacks in the recognition of and respect for the rights of women and girls. Gender equality needed to be dealt with as a matter of moral urgency in Afghanistan and elsewhere. To promote a more equal, inclusive and respectful workplace, in conjunction with United Nations Women and the President of the Human Rights Council, Mr. Francis was launching a training campaign in Geneva to help prevent sexual harassment and promote gender equality in the workplace.
In closing, Mr. Francis urged all to harness the strength and credibility of the Council, as a platform for focused dialogue and a joint quest for solutions. Faith in the Universal Declaration for Human Rights needed to remain the eternal guidelight to achieving a brighter rights-based future for all.
ANTÓNIO GUTERRES, United Nations Secretary-General, said the Council was meeting at a time of turbulence for the world, for people, and for human rights. Conflicts were taking a terrible toll as parties to war trampled on human rights and humanitarian law. At the local level and online, many communities were riven with violent rhetoric, discrimination and hate speech. There was also an information war, a war on the poor and a war on nature. All these battles had one thing in common: they were a war on fundamental human rights. The path to peace began with full respect for all human rights. Building a culture of human rights was building a world at peace. Mr. Guterres commended the critical contributions of the Human Rights Council towards this goal, through its mandates and mechanisms, and its response to evolving situations.
The world was becoming less safe by the day. The rule of law, and the rules of war, were being undermined. The Security Council was often deadlocked, unable to act on the most significant peace and security issues. The Council’s lack of unity on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and on Israel’s military operations in Gaza following the horrific terror attacks by Hamas on 7 October, had severely – perhaps fatally – undermined its authority. The Council needed serious reform to its composition and working methods.
Nothing could justify Hamas’ deliberate killing, injuring, torturing and kidnapping of civilians, the use of sexual violence – or the indiscriminate launching of rockets towards Israel. And nothing justified the collective punishment of the Palestinian people. Tens of thousands of civilians, including women and children, had been killed in Gaza. Humanitarian aid was still completely insufficient. Rafah was the core of the humanitarian aid operation, and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East was the backbone of that effort. An all-out Israeli offensive on the city would put the final nail in the coffin of the United Nations’ aid programmes. Mr. Guterres repeated his call for a humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.
International humanitarian law was clear: all parties needed to distinguish between civilians and combatants at all times. All allegations of serious violations and abuses demanded urgent investigation and accountability. The United Nations was determined to take such action in relation to allegations against its own staff. States had the primary responsibility to protect and promote human rights. To support States in meeting their obligations, Mr. Guterres was launching a system-wide United Nations Agenda for Protection, together with the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Under this Agenda, the United Nations would act as one to prevent human rights violations, and to identify and respond to them when they took place.
Around the world, governments needed to step up and re-commit to working for peace and security rooted in human rights. The Summit of the Future in September was an opportunity for such a re-commitment. The New Agenda for Peace, to be discussed at the Summit, applied a human rights lens to preventing and ending violence in all its forms. The United Nations was also setting out ways to tackle online abuses of human rights and support people’s right to connectivity and privacy online through its forthcoming code of conduct for information integrity and a Global Digital Compact.
War was not only waged on the battlefield. Some of today’s economic policies, at both national and global levels, constituted a war on the poor – and on their human rights. The world’s poorest countries were due to pay over 185 billion United States dollars in debt services costs this year – more than their total public spending on health, education and infrastructure. The United Nations was pushing for a Sustainable Development Goal Stimulus of 500 billion United States dollars annually in affordable long-term finance for developing countries. The Summit of the Future would consider deep reforms to make global financial frameworks more inclusive, equitable and just, so they could support governments in prioritising social spending, sustainable development and climate action.
The crises assaulting the planet – climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution – all had a massive injustice at their core. Those who did least to cause these crises were bearing the brunt of rising hunger and famine, land degradation, forced displacement, contaminated water sources and premature deaths. The recognition of the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2021 and by the General Assembly in 2022 showed that times were changing.
Climate justice demanded that G20 countries led the progressive phase-out of fossil fuels. It demanded that all Nationally Determined Contributions, or national climate plans, were aligned with the 1.5-degree upper limit on global heating. It demanded an effective carbon price and an end to fossil fuel subsidies. And it demanded that the Loss and Damage Fund was up and running as soon as possible, with significant contributions.
The multiplication of conflicts worldwide was causing unprecedented suffering. But human rights were a constant. They brought coherence to the search for solutions, and they were fundamental to hopes for a world at peace. Four years ago, the United Nations marked its seventy-fifth anniversary with a global survey. Overwhelmingly, people everywhere said they wanted world leaders to prioritise and deliver human rights. This year’s Summit of the Future was the opportunity to answer that demand - to align global institutions with today’s ever-changing reality, and to embrace the unchanging values of human rights. Mr. Guterres called on all parties to seize this opportunity to advance peace and human rights for all.
VOLKER TÜRK, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the Council entered into session at a time of seismic global shocks. The pain and the slaughter of so many people in the Middle East, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Haiti and other places around the world were unbearable. Human rights were the only essential guarantees anchoring societies during turbulence and disarray. Member States and many partners came together at the December high-level event to commemorate 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By the end of that two-day event, 153 Member States had issued concrete pledges, alongside civil society groups, United Nations bodies, businesses and others: over 770 pledges, in all. They ranged from commitments to increase women's leadership and employment equality, to tackling extreme poverty, ensuring transitional justice, and improving access to education, healthcare and social protections. Just as important was the outpouring of support from members of the public, in every corner of the globe.
Mr. Türk said today he was pleased to launch "Human Rights: A Path for Solutions", the distillation of the commemoration year, in the hope it would inform the Summit of the Future. It set out eight messages to guide renewed action for peace; economies that worked for people and planet; effective governance; and guardrails for digital and scientific progress. The Secretary-General's announcement of the United Nation's Protection Pledge, and the Agenda for Protection, would ensure that the entire United Nations gave priority to advancing human rights in every circumstance.
The High Commissioner flagged two overarching concerns that had potential impact on all countries. First, negotiations on treaties on pandemic prevention and on cybercrime, as well as on plastic pollution; and global discussions about the regulation of artificial intelligence. All these talks which were currently underway were not sufficiently considering human rights obligations, and the human rights harms that could be done. Second, attempts to undermine the legitimacy and work of the United Nations were disturbing, including disinformation that targeted United Nations humanitarian organizations, United Nations peacekeepers, and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The United Nations had become a lightning rod for manipulative propaganda and a scapegoat for policy failures, which was destructive of the common good.
The United Nations was uniquely equipped to enable States to discuss and resolve pressing global issues. This convening power was particularly vital now, when the magnitude of conflict, planetary peril and digital transformation required urgent solutions. United Nations humanitarian agencies assisted hundreds of millions of people to stay alive. The United Nation's development and peace work was crucial to all nations. Within countries, the "us versus them" illogic was creating increasingly dangerous and combustible divisions, especially in pre-electoral periods. All of this was a politics of distraction, of warmongering, which slowly numbed compassion. Mr. Türk said he drew strength and hope from last year's powerful tributes to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Every human being was born equal. All victims were equally deserving of justice. No-one could be left behind. And nobody was above the law.
IGNACIO CASSIS, Chief of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, said he would have liked to welcome everyone to the Human Rights Council in a more favourable international context. The war in Ukraine had entered its third year; the conflict in the Middle East seemed more than ever to be at an impasse; and the current crisis in Sudan had thrown nearly eight million people onto the roads. And these were only three of the more than 50 open conflicts in the world. According to Sweden's Varieties of Democracy Institute, more than 70 per cent of the world's population now lived in autocracies. Democracy had regressed to the level of the mid-1980s. The international community had a responsibility to stop this negative dynamic.
If human rights were respected everywhere, there would not be constant talk of war. Despite all the laws enacted, efforts did not seem to have succeeded in making reason triumph over violence. This year, 2024, was an important test for democracy: elections were scheduled in more than 64 countries. Half of the world's population were called to the polls. Many citizens would be called upon to make use of their right to information, freedom of speech and possibility of peaceful assembly. The United Nations must ensure the protection of civic space and fair and free elections. Harassment and targeted attacks aimed at shrinking essential democratic space needed to be combatted.
These engaging words needed to be followed by concrete and lasting action, which was why everyone was gathered in Geneva. This year, Switzerland was applying to become a member of the Council. Building on the Swiss tradition of accountability to humanitarian law and human rights, the country aspired to be more responsive to the challenges of these turbulent times. Two months ago, with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was celebrated. This year marked the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Geneva Conventions. If history was a reminder of what could be done for a peaceful world, it showed all that nothing could ever be taken for granted, neither fundamental rights nor peace. There was an urgent need to act together.
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not an official record. English and French versions of our releases are different as they are the product of two separate coverage teams that work independently.
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