General Debate under Agenda Item: 10

Technical assistance and capacity-building

5 July 2018

Joint statement by: International-Lawyers.Org and Geneva International Centre for Justice (GICJ)

Thank You Mr. President,

International-Lawyers.Org and Geneva International Centre for Justice would like to highlight the imperative nature of technical assistance efforts to ensure the sustainable futures of the countries in question.

For example, despite Mali’s commendable efforts to cooperate with the recommendations highlighted in its UPR, it will require continued technical assistance towards its peace agreement, combating forced child labour, and fighting terrorism in the Sahel region to achieve immediate positive results. In the Central African Republic, there is a dire need to support the rehabilitation of victims, finance the RCPCA, support the combating of hate speech, and reintegrate children formerly recruited by illicit armed groups.

In a distinct yet equally threatening scenario, many Pacific Island states face the existential hazard of rising sea levels. For Fiji, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and the Marshall Islands, the current predicted sea level rise would result in their almost total submersion by the year 2100, with changes in both geographic features and water temperatures having the additional potential to adversely alter the fishing stocks that these states heavily rely on for food security.

With negligible capacity to stem this threat themselves, these states depend on larger countries to implement reforms that might prevent a more drastic warming of the Earth’s atmosphere. To that end, our organisations call upon the United States as one of the world’s largest energy consumers to acknowledge climate change as a genuine threat and make expeditious provisions to put in place a more sustainable policy on the same.

Many thanks.