Kamalesh Sharma addressed the High Level Segment of the UN Human Rights Council's 28th Regular Session in Geneva on 3 March 2015.
Kamalesh Sharma addressed the High Level Segment of the UN Human Rights Council's 28th Regular Session in Geneva on 3 March 2015.
This is a full transcript of the speech as delivered.
Mr President, High Commissioner for Human Rights, Excellencies, Distinguished Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen.
I congratulate you, Mr President, on your appointment and wish you success.
It is an honour once again to address the Council on behalf of the Commonwealth. We are a values-based organisation and are wholeheartedly committed to human rights protection and promotion.
The composition of this Council includes 12 Commonwealth member states.
Soon after his installation last year, I met the High Commissioner and we remain in contact. I am delighted that we are developing a new Memorandum of Understanding between the Office of the High Commissioner and the Commonwealth Secretariat, to be completed this year.
Mr President, we have continued to support the Universal Periodic Review mechanism. Our current focus is the effective and durable implementation of accepted UPR recommendations. We are supporting several of our member states in various thematic areas including the finalisation and implementation of a national human rights action plan; establishing and strengthening national human rights institutions in compliance with the Paris Principles; and, human rights education.
We have also taken forward work with parliamentarians in sharing best practices to strengthen their contribution to the promotion and protection of human rights within their remits of lawmaking and oversight of the Executive branch of government. In Africa, this has led to the Mahé Declaration in which parliamentarians committed to increasing their engagement in the reporting and implementation process of international and regional human rights mechanisms, including the Treaty Bodies and the UPR. They also established a network to promote inter-parliamentary cooperation aimed at better implementation of UPR recommendations. We are promoting this model in other regions of the Commonwealth.
Our work with small states and their participation in their Universal Periodic Reviews has been delivered from the Commonwealth Small States Office here in Geneva, in partnership with the Office of the High Commissioner as well as a number of other Permanent Missions. As a capacity-supporting partner, I am grateful that our long term engagement is widely sought and now given.
Mr President, in supporting member states to strengthen, operationalise and establish National Human Rights Institutions in compliance with the Paris Principles, we have begun work on a comparative publication of practices across the Commonwealth on the appointment procedures of Chairs and Commissioners of National Human Rights Institutions. This will update and strengthen a previous Commonwealth publication on the subject and will have a specific focus on independence. It will benefit from the expertise and experiences of the Office of the High Commissioner as well as regional networks of national human rights institutions and civil society.
The Commonwealth Forum of National Human Rights Institutions continues to be an effective mutually supportive peer group and reflects the Commonwealth focus on building national resilience.
Mr President, the Commonwealth’s Heads of Government at their meeting in 2013 agreed that we should continue to address child, early and forced marriage, giving due consideration to the domestic legislation of member countries and relevant international law. The Commonwealth Secretariat is focussed on sharing best practices, challenges, achievements, and on addressing implementation gaps in preventing and eliminating child, early and forced marriage.
We contributed to the compilation report of the Office of the High Commissioner on this subject last year, and were pleased that several aspects of our input were reflected in the report. In May this year, we will be convening the Commonwealth Forum of National Human Rights Institutions, in order to strengthen the capacities of these national protection mechanisms to contribute to the elimination of this form of violence against women.
We echo in particular the words of the Deputy High Commissioner made at the UN General Assembly last year: the human rights of every girl and woman must be at the centre of our attention as we agree a framework for the post-2015 development agenda. Sustainability of all collective progress in our societies centres around equality in gender, respect, and opportunity in the nation’s political, social and economic life.
Mr President, we face an unprecedented global challenge to peace, security and the defence of the weak and vulnerable. The threats of radicalism and extremism are growing. In the Commonwealth Charter, our governments and our peoples have emphasised the need to promote tolerance, respect, understanding, moderation and religious freedom. We recognise that it is by accepting diversity and understanding the richness of our identities that peace and prosperity in free and democratic societies are achieved.
The struggle for all of us as we move forward in this century will be for our positive belief in our intrinsic right to rich and multiple identities to triumph over the peddling of negative reductionist and singular ones. This is the Commonwealth credo and its contribution to global wisdom.
We are conscious of the importance of recognising that all individuals have a mutuality of respect, a multiplicity of identities reflecting their stage of life, their varied interests, their commitments, their beliefs, their aspirations, and much more. Each of these are rich veins of identity that become possibilities for building strong bridges over the sterile divides that are too-easily created, too-easily simplified, and too-easily exploited to our detriment as individuals and as a global community. In overcoming this enormous challenge, we should seek to harness the potential and support the efforts of young people and women in particular.
Mr President, a 2011 report, requested by the Council and prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner, documented discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, and how international human rights law can be used to end violence and related human rights violations in this area. In September last year, this Council adopted a new resolution on the subject, once again expressing grave concern and requesting the High Commissioner to produce an update of the report with a view to sharing good practices and ways to overcome violence and discrimination.
We look forward to the publication of the report. We will be encouraging Commonwealth member states to reflect and act on its actionable recommendations in order to give effect to our shared commitment to dignity, equality and nondiscrimination.
Mr President, we encourage member states to participate actively in the discussion on Human Rights and Climate Change to be held in this Council on 6 March. This is an especially pivotal issue for small and other climate-vulnerable states. I am pleased that three Commonwealth members will be panelists at the highest political level.
Mr President, we have all continued to benefit from the insights of Special Rapporteurs and Expert Mechanisms. In giving effect to Commonwealth work, this has been the case especially in the areas of the right to health; human rights defenders; sexual violence in conflict; indigenous peoples; and, the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and the guarantees of non-recurrence. We have noted, and will follow with interest during this Council’s programme of work, the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. We are concerned about the increasing threat to the freedoms of association and peaceful assembly, and encourage strengthened rights protection in these areas.
Finally Mr President, our Commonwealth theme this year is ‘A Young Commonwealth’. More than sixty per cent of the population of the Commonwealth’s 53 member states is 29 years or under. The Commonwealth sees young people as vital assets who need to be empowered to realise their potential and contribute fully to all facets of national development if our collective future is to be secured.
Human rights education is imperative, especially in schools, if we are to develop and sharpen leading and responsible young voices today who will take their place as standard-setters in our communities tomorrow. We recall article 26 of the Universal Declaration: education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. We also recall the UNESCO Constitution where it states that since wars begin in the minds, it is in those same minds that peace must be constructed.
Our Commonwealth theme also points to youthfulness in terms of fresh creativity and innovation. We are ever “A Young Commonwealth” in this respect as well. In our collective advocacy, in our practical work, and in our understanding of the contemporary human rights terrain, we must continue to explore new ways to raise awareness, commitment and advancement. In taking meaningful steps to lift the lives of individuals and the communities in which they live, we need to discover new possibilities moving beyond the constraints of today.
