UN Human Rights Council 41st Session
Item 2 – General Debate
25th June 2019
Intervention by ESTONIA
Mr President,
Distinguished High Commissioner,
Estonia fully aligns itself with the statement made by the European Union.
We value highly and commend the forceful advocacy by the High Commissioner throughout her mandate and thank for yesterday’s latest global update.
Despite some positive developments, we are concerned about the lack of progress in the protection, promotion and exercise of human rights in many parts of the world. We appreciate highly the attention of the High Commissioner on the most acute human rights situations. It is important to keep these situations under the scrutiny of the Human Rights Council and to give a voice for the voiceless. Unfortunately, the children are among the voiceless also in connection with the rising number of protracted conflicts.
All independent human rights mechanisms should have full and unconditional access to countries’ territories, including occupied areas, to conduct most efficient human rights monitoring. We call on countries to cooperate fully with the OHCHR, treaty bodies and the Council’s mechanisms.
Civil society groups and human rights defenders have a vital role to carry out in furthering gender equality and human rights in general. Estonia, serving as a member of the NGO Committee in New York, strongly supports the more inclusive approach to engage with civil society as well as to improve the working methods of the NGO Committee, so that it can fulfill its core duty in its entirety.
In conclusion we would like to stress that human rights are universal and everyone needs to be protected against discrimination and violence on any grounds. Prevention together with accountability is the key in avoiding deterioration of human rights. We would like to ask the High Commissioner how to better integrate the HRC and OHCHR prevention mandates to the UN system, in particular to the Security Council?
Thank you.
