“CURRENT CHALLENGES TO HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION”
Thank you Chair and distinguished guests for the invitation to UNDP to address this year’s Annual Conference on such an important topic, in a day that sadly follows another terrible attack that struck Brussels heart just yesterday killing more than 30 people.
The world is changing at an unprecedented pace with multidimensional challenges that require much more action and integrated responses from all of us, in solidarity, to prevent and mitigate the violations, abuses and atrocities that we are witnessing on a daily basis. Of particular concern, in recent years, we are seeing a new wave of violent extremism and escalating conflicts that has taken the lives of many innocent people of different faiths, races and nationalities.
The numbers speak for themselves and allow me to share some that I find quite impressive and telling of I see as the first and most concerning human rights protection challenge, that is the rise of violent extremism.
Since the beginning of the 21st century there has been more than a nine-fold increase in the number of deaths from violent extremism and terrorism, from 3,329 in 2000 to 32,685 in 2014. Five countries - Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria - accounted for 78 per cent of the lives lost in 2014.
All these actions were inspired by extremist ideologies that glorify the supremacy of a particular group, whether based on religion, race, citizenship, class or conviction, and thus oppose the idea of a more open and inclusive society.
In 2014, the five countries with the highest levels of terrorist/violent extremist attacks, generated over 16 million refugees and IDPs. Nearly 1.4 billion people are estimated to live in fragile contexts, and that number is projected in the Secretary-General’s Report for the World Humanitarian Summit to grow to 1.9 billion by 2030. UNHCR’s 2015 Global Trends Report states that worldwide displacement is now at the highest level ever recorded. It said the number of people forcibly displaced by the end of 2014 had risen to a staggering 59.5 million people, of who half were children.
The unprecedented number of displaced people poses a variety of other human rights challenges, as pointed by the Deputy High Commissioner in her opening speech yesterday. Conflicts in Africa, the Arab States and Western Asia as well as the impact of climate change and natural disasters fuel the waves of refugees and/or migrants who seek asylum or better livelihood opportunities in neighboring countries, Europe or the US. We see it every day in the news and our hearts break with hopelessness.
The massive influx of foreigners spurs fears that are exploited by extreme right-wing political parties that call for the protection of national borders. There is also a risk that radicalization among refugees and migrants could rise if their aspirations for a better life end in poverty or stigmatization. It is therefore important for both host communities and refugee and migrant populations to work towards integration.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In UNDP we believe that as development actors our role is to address the root causes of extremism and these are connected to the enjoyment of basic and fundamental human rights for all. We must address these causes and not be only reactive to the symptoms.
Our UN Resident Coordinators and senior leadership of UNDP on the ground are well aware that shrinking of democratic spaces, curtailing of freedom of speech and exclusionary practices of political power-sharing, discrimination of women, indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities or persecution of LGBTI – all have the potential to fuel grievances that can lead to break down in social cohesion in communities, escalation of conflict and violent extremism.
We must work together more than even to prevent and mitigate this massive crisis. The UN reform discussion within the fit for purpose agenda call for the UN to work together across the board, to promote a more integrated UN system – peace, development, human rights and humanitarian action – as a means to promote prevention and to sustain peace.
As we will have the opportunity to listen later today from the Deputy Secretary General, the HRUF initiative is about ensuring that the UN system wide is more attuned to early signs of serious and systematic human violation to respond sooner and prevent crisis escalation. Also, the UN Secretary General in his Plan of Action to Prevent Violent Extremism, explains how violent extremism become attractive where human rights are being violated, and good governance is being ignored.
As recognized in the Plan of Action, the response to violent extremism needs to be twofold, at the same time answering immediate challenges and preventing further spread of extremism, and addressing root causes as means of long-term prevention.
Human rights and the rule of law feature in the UNDP Strategic Plan more prominently than ever. Apart from the specific output (2.3) on NHRIs there is explicit reaffirmation of rights, HRBA, participation and voice, gender equality as engagement principles to guide our work as means to address inequality, exclusion and prevent drivers of conflict.
There is a whole spectrum of existing rule of law and human rights practices that could be of relevance in this respect. They range from community security, SSR, restricting proliferation of SALW and border control to capacity development for special jurisdictions and criminal prosecutions. Also key are access to justice programmes tailored for refugees and IDPs, youth and other ‘at risk’ groups, and reform of correctional services to disincentivize radicalization in prisons to human rights monitoring and protection, access to transitional justice remedies for victims of VE, and parliamentary and civil society oversight of overreach on civil liberties by security and justice institutions.
Promoting all human rights and access to justice, combating gender based violence, fighting impunity, supporting the rule of law and dealing with legacies of conflict, are at the heart of UNDP work in more than 40 crisis or fragility affected countries.
In several of these conflict countries, UNDP has been on the forefront of the response to violent extremism working with the host governments through te implementation of programmes that address a combination of interventions in some of the areas mentioned before.
In Sudan Darfur together with the UN Mission UNDP is strengthening the capacity of correctional services and design and implement programmes for anti-radicalization of prison population.
In Mindanao we are supporting Access to justice programmes that target “at risk” population including youth, ex-combatants, previously disenfranchised and/or displaced groups in conjunction with livelihood opportunities and providing transitional justice remedies for victims of VE and other human rights abuses.
In Turkey, Ukraine, Bosnia, Serbia UNDP is strengthening mechanisms of civilian oversight of justice, human rights and security institutions including parliamentary committees, NHRI and CSOs in regards to human rights and civil liberties overreach.
The second human rights challenge I would like to highlight comes from long systemic practices of inequality, poverty and violation of social, cultural and economic rights, exclusion of minorities and the most vulnerable from all participatory processes in decisions that affect their lands, livelihoods and customs. Land grabbing, illegal mining and practices of extractive industries with no adherence to basic human rights standards is affecting thousands of communities, indigenous peoples, women and children that are exposed to the environmental and health impacts such as mercury poisoning. In many countries in Asia and the Pacific and in Africa national institutions have been at the forefront of fighting these practices.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
In all these daunting challenges, NHRIs are key actors in regards to prevention or mitigating escalation of crisis and in post-conflict solutions - They have unique broad human rights mandates and functions including investigations, monitoring, reporting at national, regional and international level which are relevant at all stages of conflict.
The degree to which NHRIs can be engaged in advancing the objectives of promotion, prevention and protection is highly context specific. But it is certain that national institutions can provide the UN system with a neutral institutional space at the national level to support respond to the risks or triggers of serious violations, before they occur, or to strategies that can address serious violations that may have already occurred.
As investigative bodies with quasi-judicial powers, NHRIs are well-placed to ensure better understanding of the local context, to provide warning and respond to situations that pose a risk for serious human rights violations. The success of prevention is pegged to the availability of credible, timely and joined-up information of relevance to human rights analysis on potential or ongoing serious violations, that can enable early action by all relevant actors, including the UN.
A good example of this role is the work that has been carried out by the NHRI in Ukraine and that UNDP was privileged to support through building of human rights actors among Civil Society Organisations and the National Human Rights Institution to monitor and document violations in the east of Ukraine and Crimea for possible further use by national and international justice mechanisms.
NHRIs are also mandated to promote human rights through education and training initiatives for government Ministries/departments and human rights awareness programs for the pubic and social actors. Educational programs can have highly significant consequences in terms of prevention of serious violations and escalating tensions.
In Sudan - In 2015, in cooperation with the Commission, grand-scale awareness raising campaigns were conducted. 6000 women received training related to violence against women and reproductive health and over 48,000 people were reached through community radio campaigns.
Furthermore, NHRIs often also have a mandate to advise on draft policies/legislation, identify deficiencies in existing policies/law, and recommend reforms in accordance with international human rights standards. bIn other instances, NHRI engagement in post conflict settings have ensured that political dialogues, reconciliation and mediation processes are inclusive n some contexts are allowed to participate in facilitating mediation, reconciliation and ensuring that political processes are inclusive.
For example, in Indonesia UNDP supported the NHRI Komnas HAM to incorporate gender perspectives and women’s human rights into ongoing public inquiry into land and IP issues. UNDP also collaborated with the Ombudsman to strengthen the effectiveness of the Public Complaints and Grievance Handling Mechanisms (PCM) and support to the operation of PCM units, which resulted in a presidential regulation requiring every national and subnational public service institution to establish public complaints and handling mechanisms (PCMs).
Protecting NHRIs at risk and building their capacities to address prevention of conflict, response in conflict contexts and post-conflict situations is among the key priorities that GANHRI - UNDP-OHCHR- Partnership has identified moving forward.
With your support, UNDP will continue to advocate and rally member states and like-minded partners to support this effort through national institutions ensuring a developmental approach that also tackles the underlining causes at the epicenter of violence, marginalization and conflict. We need to avoid reactive or ad hoc responses to its spill overs, that often put at stake the same freedoms and fundamental rights that members states have pledged to uphold within their human rights commitments.
Thank you and wishes of success for the continuation of this important Conference.