Appeal of June 13th to put Human Rights at the Heart of Conflict Prevention

Switzerland launches the appeal of June 13th to put Human Rights at the Heart of Conflict Prevention: “Security and human rights make a perfect match”

Appeal of June 13th 2016
To put Human Rights at the Heart of Conflict Prevention
1. As we mark the 10th anniversary of the Human Rights Council, Switzerland
together with Afghanistan, Albania, Andorra, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria,
Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Botswana, Bulgaria, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Fiji, Finland, France, Gabon,
Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Haïti, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy,
Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Mexico, Monaco,
Mongolia, Montenegro, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Panama,
Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Republic of Moldova, Romania,
Rwanda, San Marino, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Tajikistan,
Thailand, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Togo, Ukraine, United
Kingdom and Northern Ireland, United States of America and Uruguay welcome the
significant achievements of the Council in promoting and protecting human rights all
over the world and jointly call for the strengthening of human rights as an invaluable
tool for conflict prevention.
2. We reaffirm the purposes and principles contained in the Charter of the United
Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Vienna Declaration and
Programme of Action, and we recall the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and other
relevant international human rights instruments. Furthermore, we reaffirm that all
human rights are universal, indivisible, interrelated, interdependent and mutually
reinforcing, and that all human rights must be treated in a fair and equal manner, on
the same footing and with the same emphasis.
3. Since its creation, the Human Rights Council has been playing a decisive role in
our common endeavor to promote and protect human rights and fundamental
freedoms throughout the world. We therefore reaffirm our commitment to the Human
Rights Council and we pledge to further support the Council in the fulfillment of its
mandate.
4. When establishing the Human Rights Council, Member States underlined that
peace and security, development and human rights are interlinked and mutually
reinforcing. A lot has been achieved in the past ten years to strengthen the United
Nations’ human rights pillar. The Human Rights Council and the Office of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights have made important contributions in this regard.
Yet, more could be done to further implement the mainstreaming mandate of the
Human Rights Council. We need to strengthen the human rights pillar as well as
enhance its linkages with the peace and security and development pillars.
5. In particular, we believe that the Human Rights Council can and should play a
more prominent role in conflict prevention. Human rights violations are at the same
time cause and consequence of armed conflicts. While the most egregious human
rights violations and abuses often happen in situations of armed conflict, when the
civilian population, including women and children, are particularly vulnerable to
abuse, they are also an indicator of potential instability or of the escalation of a
conflict. While globalisation and rapidly increasing interconnectivity increase the risk
of overspill of initial internal conflicts, the promotion and protection of human rights is
becoming a key to conflict prevention.
The Human Rights Council thus has a key role to play at every stage of the
prevention continuum: building respect for human rights to sustain peace, supporting
peaceful conflict resolution; monitoring human rights violations and abuses as early
warning to intensify prevention; mitigation during an ongoing armed conflict; followed
in the post-conflict phase by accountability mechanisms, capacity building as well as
monitoring to sustain peace.
6. We hence take the 10 year anniversary of the Human Rights Council as an
occasion to commit to intensifying the nexus between the United Nations’ three pillars
and to put human rights at the heart of conflict prevention. We welcome the on-going
efforts of the United Nations Secretariat to mainstream the promotion and protection
of human rights in all United Nations activities with a view to preventing situations of
armed conflict. We appreciate the persistent efforts of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights to highlight situations of serious human rights violations and abuses
and to provide support to States in protecting, respecting and fulfilling human rights.
We also believe that Member States should make full use of the interlinkages and
mutually reinforcing nature among the three pillars in order to enhance the
effectiveness, efficiency and timeliness of the United Nations’ conflict prevention and
peace sustaining activities.
7. We are convinced that the Human Rights Council can play a more important role in
conflict prevention and that significant progress can be achieved within the current
institutional setting and with the instruments currently available to us. We therefore
call on Member States to foster and enhance communication and exchanges
between the Human Rights Council and the rest of the United Nations system, in
particular the Security Council, and their respective bodies, mechanisms and
members, in order to ensure that the United Nations human rights work is given
optimal consideration in United Nations’ conflict prevention activities.
In particular:
– We call on Members of the Human Rights Council to ask the SecretaryGeneral
to bring to the attention of the Security Council decisions and reports
of the Human Rights Council relevant to conflict prevention; and to foster
relevant exchanges between the mechanisms of the Human Rights Council
and the bodies of the Security Council with a view to enhancing conflict
prevention;
– We invite Members of the Security Council to request regular briefings by the
High Commissioner for Human Rights; to supplement its information base for
informed decisions with reports of the Human Rights Council and its
mechanisms, including commissions of inquiry, in order to enhance its action
in conflict prevention; and to strengthen interaction between the subsidiary
bodies of the Security Council and the relevant mechanisms of the Human
Rights Council;
– We call on United Nations Member States to systematically integrate the
human rights dimension in their respective conflict prevention activities; and to
increase their support to OHCHR in order for OHCHR to be able to fulfill its
mandate, in particular by gathering first-hand information from its field
presences and by analyzing available information at headquarters.
8. By joining this appeal we commit to use actively our membership in all relevant
bodies of the United Nations to put human rights at the heart of conflict prevention
and make conflict prevention a reality.

Bern, 13.06.2016 – Geneva, 13.06.16: Address by Federal Councillor Didier Burkhalter at the opening of the Human Rights Council’s June session 

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,

First of all, let me say that Switzerland condemns in the strongest terms the terrorist acts that struck Orlando yesterday, and extends its sincere condolences to the families and relatives of the victims of this tragedy. We must continue our fight and prevent terrorism in order to defend our citizens and our freedoms.

The Human Rights Council is ten years old. Now is the time to give it a new dimension and to listen to it even more closely. Today, June 13th, my country, Switzerland, has chosen to launch an appeal to the international community, to all of you. We call for a strengthening of the links between human rights, development and peace and security. We issue a call to bring these pillars of the UN closer together and to improve the links between Geneva and New York – between human rights and security. This is how we can make true progress in our shared ability to prevent war and suffering.

I will return to this appeal of June 13th, but let us first look back. In the first 10 years of its existence, the Human Rights Council has come a long way. When the Human Rights Council opened its first session ten years ago almost to the day, Switzerland and Geneva were happy and honoured to welcome you to this essential milestone. Today, we still feel the same way whenever we can extend a warm welcome to you in this city dedicated to human rights.

Why? Because the creation of the Human Rights Council has enabled the revitalisation of the action of the United Nations with regard to human rights. This Council is, first and foremost, a place for dialogue and exchange in order to gain a better understanding of each other; it has, furthermore, become an instrument which is ready to react to any crisis occurring anywhere in the world.

Human rights successes are the result of the tireless efforts of individual citizens around the world to demand recognition of their rights. The success of the Human Rights Council is also a result of this engagement, as well as that of the Member States and of those who believe in this institution. It is in particular the result of the efforts of the first ten presidencies of the Council, which, in a kind of relay race with the support of the High Commissioner’s Office, have developed its functioning step by step.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR), for example, has become a driving force for advancing human rights on a universal scale. The Special Procedures have become the eyes and ears of the Council.

The past ten years have proven that this Council is capable of being highly responsive to human rights violations and to tackling new issues resulting from societal change. Despite all the qualities of this Council, ten years have not been enough – actually far from enough – to significantly advance the respect for human rights: human rights violations continue to be a widespread reality – especially in fragile contexts and in failing or authoritarian states.

In other words, the Human Rights Council can serve peace and security in the long run only if it contributes to winning the fight for respect for human rights. Human rights violations and a lack of guarantees for fundamental freedoms for all individuals are indicators that peace and security are at risk. Furthermore, the most egregious human rights violations often happen in situations of armed conflict, when civilian populations, including women and children, become targets of suffering.

Therefore, why wait? Why not listen better to the human rights message? Why not understand that this message is addressed to us, the nations that stand united, that this message is an early warning? A warning to prevent conflicts; to prevent these sufferings.

In fact, peace, security and human rights go hand in hand.

For the next decade, we will need a Human Rights Council which is not only able to respond, but also able to anticipate and to better contribute to conflict prevention and, thereby, to promote peace and security.

In doing so, we are concretising an intention that has existed for a long time already. Our forebears created the Organisation of the United Nations with the vision that peace, security, development and human rights are inherently linked; that these pillars of the world are crucial for the future of humankind. Today, we have the opportunity to make their vision a reality.

How can we achieve this? How can we strengthen the impact of the Human Rights Council in the field? We could start by giving the Council a new dimension in the architecture of the United Nations. For this reason, Switzerland – supported by 63 states – is launching an appeal today: the appeal of June 13th, calling for putting human rights at the heart of conflict prevention.

Within the current institutional setting, the appeal calls for three concrete measures:

– First, enhance cooperation between the Human Rights Council and the Security Council. In particular, we call on the members of the Human Rights Council to ask the Secretary-General to bring to the attention of the Security Council decisions and reports of the Human Rights Council relevant to conflict prevention;

– Second, strengthen conflict prevention through a better use of available information. In many cases, relevant information is not shared in due time or is not taken into consideration. We invite the members of the Security Council to request regular briefings by the High Commissioner for Human Rights; its information base for informed decisions must comprise reports of the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms, including commissions of inquiry, in order to enhance their action in conflict prevention;

– Third, put human beings at the centre of our effort. All United Nations member states must better integrate the human rights dimension in all their conflict prevention activities and, consequently, increase their support to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Our challenge for the next decade consists in increasing the respect for human rights and international humanitarian law. There is potential for progress everywhere: be it in Geneva, New York or in the field.

Armed conflicts continue to cause untold human suffering. Only a common will and a common responsibility, assumed by nations that stand genuinely united, can reduce the suffering of human beings and advance their rights.

Thank you for supporting our appeal.

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