Near verbatim transcript of the press stakeout by Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson at the UN Office at Geneva

Deputy Secretary-General: Thank you very much. It is good to be back in Geneva, great to see you. I came from New York this morning. I am asked to speak at the Human Rights Council this afternoon. I was the President of the General Assembly ten years ago and conducted the negotiations creating the Human Rights Council. We have given you access to my speech so I don’t need to recall that. In my speech I look back at some of the achievements of the Human Rights Council, but I also look at some of the problems that we have ahead of us - the lacking respect of the international humanitarian law, human rights and so forth, which is a huge problem in the world, and, of course, the threat of terrorism. The event yesterday in Florida is a reminder of this horror and this threat to international peace and security. I very much look forward to this discussion and will want to take your questions.

Before I invite you to raise questions, I also want to acknowledge that today we have received the news that China has decided to join the International Organization for Migration, IOM. This is, of course, a very, very important step forward for the IOM becoming a universal organization. China’s entry will almost complete that process. It has now almost 170 Member States. As you may know, the IOM and the United Nations are in advanced discussions about an even closer relationship between the United Nations and the IOM. I just wanted to add that to my introductory remarks, but I am willing to take questions in different areas that might be of interest to you. Over to you.

Question: I have a question concerning LGBT rights. How worried are you about them being affected after what happened in Orlando - in the US and in the world?

Deputy Secretary-General: First of all, we should all express our condolences for the loss of lives: over 50 mostly young men and women, completely innocent and celebrating their lives, celebrating an evening together, and then being killed at random. I would very much hope that nobody draws any conclusions on the situation for people who are in that category – LGBT. I don’t know the circumstances yet, but I would very much hope that it doesn’t feed the hate crimes that we have seen in several parts of the world. And I think that we now need to exercise restraint and make sure that we are not provoked by the violence that has been exercised. The intention of those who make these acts is to scare us, to make us identify other groups as the problem, as the enemies, and we should now be very, very strong in standing up for our own values, every human being’s equal worth. If we start to get on the slippery slope of dividing us in different categories, we are onto a very, very dangerous future. So, let us not be provoked by violence, let us not be giving in to the fear mongers. Let us stand up for values, and not go on into this division of people of “us” and “them”, which is the intention of violent extremists.

Question : Can you say a little more about China?

Deputy Secretary-General: I just received the news yesterday evening from Director-General William Swing, the Head of IOM. He is visiting China now and he had received a letter from the Chinese Government yesterday, announcing that China is now intending to join the IOM. China has not, like Russia, been a member of the IOM. But this is a very, very important step in the direction of universality of the membership. We want very much to bring migration and refugees’ issues to the forefront of the United Nations. The migration and refugee issues of today are truly important, and for the United Nations to have a closer relationship to IOM, means that we will have a much stronger tool in dealing with one of the most important aspects of the new global landscape, namely mass migration and large numbers of refugees. We have in the world 60 million displaced people, refugees and internally displaced people, and we have 244 million migrants in the world. And on 19 September in New York, we will have a summit meeting with more than 100 Heads of State and Government, to talk about the possibility of a compact for refugees, and the beginning of a compact for migrants.

But then, above all, I want to come back to the point that Gunilla von Hall mentioned. We want very much to make the point with this meeting that we cannot continue to see refugees and migrants as problems and perils. We must see them as potential and possibility. There is a negative narrative about migration which is pretty dangerous. It’s rather dangerous. It’s very dangerous, in fact. Because if you look at migration, it has a great effect on economic growth; it has a very important effect on demographic growth. You all know that the amount of money that comes from remittances from refugees and migrants is three times as big as all the official development assistance in the world.

And then, if I may say so on a personal note, I think it’s important that we are reminded of the beauty of diversity in our societies. The beauty of our diversity in societies, in our Nation States. We have so many different groups, of different character, which represent different interests, different inclinations. It is absolutely vital that we never fail – we never stray from the road of everybody’s equal worth. I always carry the UN Charter in my pocket, as a reminder of this, that this is what this is all about. And the world today is now – we have two important tendencies. One is people who try to divide us, people who try to bring out fear, and division, and polarization, and identifying “us” as higher or better than “them”. The other trend is those who fight now for everybody’s equal value, for true international solidarity and true international cooperation. And here we have a very important job to do, not least in the Human Rights Council, which is meeting now. So, when we see the bad news in the media, let’s stay cool, let’s not be provoked, let’s stand up to our values, and never falter in the belief in the United Nations Charter.

Question: This morning, Switzerland launched a formal appeal to mainstream human rights in New York, and to push the Security Council to take more into account what’s done here in Geneva, in the Human Rights Council. How do you receive that?

Deputy Secretary-General: I think it’s a very good initiative. When I was President of the General Assembly ten years ago, I was very proud to launch a formula which I think is absolutely basic for the United Nations. It says the following: there is no peace without development; there is no development without peace; and there is none of the above, neither peace nor development, without respect of human rights. The United Nations builds on three pillars. If one of these pillars is weak – peace and security, development, or human rights – the whole structure is weak. And therefore, human rights must be integrated into development work, into peace and security work.

And I can tell you after four years at the UN, as Deputy Secretary-General, I’ve seen a very, very strong trend of working and thinking much more horizontally and less vertically in silos. We see more and more how in the Security Council, human rights dimensions come in, humanitarian dimensions come in, and we see in development how this sharp borderline between humanitarian and development disappears. And I think it is very important that we now see the value of Geneva, the value of the Human Rights Council in conveying messages of importance to both the Security Council, but also to the General Assembly.

So, in my speech today, as you may have seen, I’m in fact not only celebrating this relationship, but also celebrating the ever closer relationship between New York and Geneva. I, for one, have been very much involved in the “Human Rights Up Front” initiative, preventing conflicts from turning into mass atrocities. I am very grateful to the special procedures, to the mandate holders, to the Universal Periodic Review, because it has served for us, who were seeing those early signs of conflict, as a first warning signal, the first alarm bell; and this is one point I hope I will make clear today in my speech.

Question: And do you think there could be and would you be in favour of a more systematic mechanism to transmit some reports from here towards New York when it’s related to early stages of crisis?

Deputy Secretary-General: We already have started this type of sharing of information. I’m seeing special rapporteurs constantly in New York. We are receiving their reports, we’re asking them to give us early warning signals. We want to hear the vibrations on the ground. We don’t want to wait for the disaster to occur. Why should we wait for atrocities to occur when we could act at the human rights violations stage? So we are now starting a much more intense dialogue with the Security Council.

I must admit there are those who consider this interference in internal affairs, but it’s not true. It’s about saving ourselves from the situation where we simply have to deal with a huge humanitarian crisis and a big peacekeeping operation.

And I will not pull out the Charter one more time, but prevention is in fact also a Charter responsibility. Prevention is in the first chapter’s first paragraph. And prevention is also in the whole of chapter VI of the UN Charter, “Peaceful settlements of disputes” - in fact, “Pacific settlements of disputes.”

So thank you very much, you will hear more from me if you listen to the speech soon. But thank you for your attendance, and it is great to be back with the Geneva media and journalists, and all the best to you.