General Debate under Item 3: Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development

Thank you, Mr. President,

This is a joint statement by International Lawyers.org and Geneva International Centre for Justice.

Mr. President,

We note with appreciation the resolution adopted at the 35th Regular Session off the Council on climate change and human rights. However, we must reiterate our disappointment that for almost a decade the persistent call of civil society for a Special Rapporteur on human rights and climate change has once again been ignored.

We also stress that it is important that the Council, responds to the General Assembly’s call for a multi-year programme for renewed outreach activities needed to mobilize the public in support of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action

We urge the Council to increase the resources available to mandates dealing with overarching human rights concerns such as development, peace, self-determination, international order, climate change, and unilateral coercive measures.  

We welcome the establishment of a Special Rapporteur on the right to development, which together with the Intergovernmental Working Group can work on the implementation of this fundamental human right. We look forward to cooperation between these two mandates to move forward the work of drafting a legal instrument on the right to development.

Finally, we draw attention to the continuing restrictions on accredited press by the United Nations Secretariat in New York, where Inner City Press continues to be prevented from covering the UN through actions that appear to be acts of revenge for having exposed corruption within the Secretariat in the past. Again, we urge the UN to be a good, rather than a bad, example for press freedom.

Thank you.