Thank you, Mister President,
Distinguished Acting High Commissioner,
Estonia fully aligns itself with the statement delivered by the European Union.
The human rights situation at global level continues to diminish. That is why the attention of the High Commissioner on the most acute human rights situations in the world is more and more crucial. We thank the High Commissioner and her Office for continuous and tireless hard work to monitor, engage and advocate for the protection and promotion of human rights.
For the last 6 months Russia stubbornly continues its war of aggression in Ukraine, resulting in mass casualties and horrendous human rights violations in a sovereign state. We urge Russia to immediately cease their warfare in Ukraine and to respect international human rights and humanitarian law. In addition to ruined lives in Ukraine, internally Russia increasingly and arbitrarily cracks down on critical independent voices from civil society – human rights defenders, independent media, journalists, political opponents. This country is turning into a totalitarian regime.
In Afghanistan, despite initial promises from Taliban, we witness the deliberate deteriorating of the human rights situation: an ever-growing muzzling of civil society, limiting of women’s, girls’ and the minorities’ rights to education, self-expression and employment. We urge the Taliban to protect and respect all human rights of everyone in Afghanistan, particularly women, girls and persons belonging to minorities.
We welcome the release of the assessment report of human rights concerns in Xinjiang by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and call on China to start implementing the OHCHR recommendations.
In Belarus, human rights defenders, media workers, political opponents and civil society organizations are continuously ostracized. We reiterate the urgent need to release all political prisoners unconditionally and without delay, allow freedom of expression and uphold accountability for all perpetrators for their crimes.
Mister President,
At these precarious times, we need to defend human rights and freedoms even more vigorously and work together in this regard. Human rights must always be a priority and no context must never be used to justify human rights violations. We call on all countries to cooperate fully with the OHCHR, the treaty bodies and the Council’s mechanisms.
Thank you!