HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL CONCLUDES COMMEMORATIVE SESSION FOR THE SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS

From Abkhaz to Zulu, the Universal Declaration was the world’s most translated document, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the commemorative session of the Human Rights Council held in Geneva today on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In his remarks, Mr. Ban praised the human rights defenders on the frontlines of abuse who risked their lives to ensure that others were protected, noting that it was the disabled persons who had led the process of drafting the treaty on their rights, torture victims who had stood up against the atrocities they had endured and women who had fought gender discrimination. However, the world “has not adopted such an impressive list of human rights instruments just to put them on a shelf somewhere at the United Nations”, he cautioned. These had to be “living documents” that could be wielded by experts who scrutinized country reports or assessed individual complaints. He extolled the role of human rights experts, non-governmental organizations and the press for “carrying the banner” and for bringing human rights abuses to light. Today was their day, he said.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, also speaking at a high-level segment held this afternoon, noted that it was by articulating the inherent dignity and equality of all human beings that the formidable intuition of the Declaration’s framers achieved true greatness. The Universal Declaration gave impulse to a wide and growing legal architecture, as well as advocacy vehicles, for the promotion and the protection of all rights. Today, the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration had found an echo in the constitutions and laws of more than 90 countries, and dedicated international, regional and national mechanisms, including her Office and the Human Rights Council with its independent experts, had been established to be both the custodians and the monitors of human rights, their promotion and protection.

The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Martin Uhomoibhi, said that, at the core of the human rights concept was the universal obligation to protect the human dignity of all persons, regardless of race, gender, colour or belief. Consequently, one of the fundamental challenges faced today was awareness raising, that was how to make sure people, ordinary people, knew their rights, so that they were able to claim them.

The commemorative session comes following a yearlong series of special events around the world to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The daylong meeting began this morning with children reading out articles of the Universal Declaration in their national languages. The Council then held a general debate in which it heard presentations of national, regional and international initiatives launched on the occasion of the anniversary. Finally this afternoon, the Council held a high-level segment which also heard a message from Nelson Mandela and statements from ministers and other high-level government officials from Switzerland, Brazil, Morocco, France, Luxembourg, Bahrain, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Algeria, Spain, Germany, Greece, Colombia, Sri Lanka as well as from students, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations.

The commemorative session was also the inaugural session of the Council in its new home, the newly refurbished Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations Room (Salle XX), inaugurated by the United Nations Secretary-General and the King and Queen of Spain on 18 November.


For use of the information media; not an official record

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