49th session of the Human Rights Council: Annual high-level panel discussion on human rights mainstreaming
28 February 2022
[As prepared for delivery]
The contribution of universal participation to the mainstreaming of human rights throughout the United Nations system on the tenth anniversary of the Voluntary Technical Assistance Trust Fund to Support the Participation of LDCs and SIDS in the Work of the Human Rights Council
H.E. Mr. Abdulla Shahid, President of the 76th session of the General Assembly
H.E. Mr. Federico Villegas, President of the Human Rights Council
H.E. Ms. Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Distinguished co-panelists, distinguished delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear friends:
It is a big honor to share this great hall with you today, at the 10-year anniversary of the Voluntary Technical Assistance Trust Fund to Support the Participation of Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States in the Work of the Human Rights Council. This occasion means a great deal to UNCTAD. UNCTAD has always been at the forefront of the UN effort to recognize the complex diversity of human development. We’ve been there since the beginning, promoting the idea that special categories must be created – such as Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States or Landlocked Developing Countries – and supported, through special and differentiated means.
Our rationale, that there is hardly ever an even playing field in our pursuit for prosperity, is one that this pandemic has proven right once more. Again, we’ve seen that those countries that are least developed, or whose development is more susceptible to external factors, are always more fragile to the shocks that afflict us all.
We’ve all gone through this pandemic, but we’ve not all lived the same pandemic. LDCs, for example, still have only vaccinated less than 5% of their population – their pandemic is indeed especially different. SIDS, whose public purses were already squeezed through the costs that climate change mean to them, have now very little to invest to catch up to a global recovery that is leaving them behind – their pandemic is indeed especially different. Access to vaccines and financial resources has been a differential factor in countries abilities to face this crisis. These special differences must be especially considered, and especially treated. This is UNCTAD’s enduring belief.
UNCTAD therefore celebrates that these considerations are taken to heart at the Human Rights Council, because they have human rights implications. The Bridgetown Covenant, the outcome document of UNCTAD15, which took place in Barbados last October, says explicitly in paragraph 27, and I quote:
“To put the global economy back on track and accomplish Sustainable Development Goals, this Conference gives account of a number of underlying issues, most notably: Respect for human rights, including the right to development, gender equality, and women’s and youth’s empowerment.”
Indeed, we at UNCTAD like to see ourselves as an important development arm of the United Nations plea for human rights, committed to support the transformational efforts necessary to making leaving no one behind a reality and not only a wish.
I know there are world events that have focused all our attention these days. But we must not let our deep concerns prevent us from using this special opportunity to raise our voices, and make sure we do not marginalize the development needs of the most vulnerable countries and of the developing world at large.
Rising poverty levels, measured in the tens of millions. Mounting inflation in commodities and disrupting global supply chains affect SIDS and LDCs particularly, according to our calculations, supply chain disruptions will increase price levels in SIDS by 7.5% this year, five times the rate we forecast for the rest of the world, affecting their imports of essential goods like medicines and food. Hiking interest rates, which are increasing debt service costs around the world, risking a debt crisis in the Global South like we haven’t seen in at least 30 years. Unequal access to digital technologies and asymmetric data flows. A generational regress in gender equality….
These issues must remain central to our concerns. Because much of humanity is truly facing the possibility of a lost decade, and this is also a human rights issue of generational importance, a human rights issue that literally affects billions of people around the world.
Dear friends:
The right to develop will be meaningless if it is not underpinned by an ability to develop.
A key component of this ‘ability to develop’ is exactly what the Voluntary Technical Assistance Trust Fund sought to address when it was created ten years ago.
We know that many especially vulnerable countries are often excluded from multilateralism simply because they can’t afford it. Because they can’t afford translation services, because they can’t afford permanent diplomatic missions, or more recently because they can’t afford the digital infrastructure to connect to online sessions.
To do our part to address these issues, in our recent 15th UNCTAD Conference in Barbados, our first ever in a hybrid physical-digital format, and our first ever in a SIDS, we set up 16 satellite connections in LDCs to ensure accessibility and inclusiveness in areas with different internet connections. Thus, we are happy to say that in UNCTAD15, all the member states of our universal membership were able to participate, to negotiate, to say their part and share their unique perspective.
Distinguished delegates, dear friends:
It is our belief that the United Nations is at its best when it ensures the greatest diversity of participation.
When countries from all over the globe, no matter how big or how small, how rich or how poor, share the same hall, under conditions of equality.
When they work together under that spirit of brotherhood the Universal Declaration of Human Rights refers to, and I quote : "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and right. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."
Thanks to the efforts of the Voluntary Technical Assisstance Trust Fund, the Human Rights Council for these ten zears of achievent and support to make inclusivity and diversity.
The results have been very inspiring and rightly emphasized by all participants.
You really are making a difference.
Please keep up the good work, and always count on us at UNCTAD. I thank you.
