Thank you Mr President Mme High Commissioner,
Thank you for sharing information on your and your Office's activities during the last year.
Allow me to join you in expressing condolence to the victims of yesterdays attacks in Jerusalem and Bagdad.
It is with deep regret that we hear that you have decided not to seek a second term as High Commissioner. Your professionalism, your integrity, your personal strong conviction of the seriousness of the issues you have been responsible for during the last four years, and above all your untiring strength and perseverance have brought you deep admiration from my Government.
These are all characteristics that have benefitted not only the OHCHR but the broader cause of human rights in the UN system and beyond. These are characteristics which are not easy to find combined in one person - but the OHCHR will need the same characteristics in its future endeavors to promote the respect for human rights worldwide.
Fortunately you will leave an office which has been strengthened, and which has a solid basis on which to move ahead with future challenges.
Mme High Commissioner,
• Your Plan of Action, endorsed by the World Summit in 2005, has been the basis for the development of much of what the Office does today. It continues to live up to expectations and will need to be fulfilled. Other decisions by the World Summit in the area of human rights are still binding on us and shall be fulfilled during the coming years as well. The regular budget of your Office will be doubled and the mainstreaming mandate for human rights in the UN system will become reality.
• The move towards country engagement has given the UN an increased human rights presence on the ground and a focus on implementation that was lacking before. Today the early results of that policy are apparent – you have reported to us on Office activities in such geographically wide-spread and substantially diverse situations as Colombia and Nepal. Sweden firmly supports your efforts to establish a presence by the office in the field, where this is necessary. In this context, we hope that your dialogue with the Government of Sri Lanka on the establishment of an office there will be successful.
• While this strategy needs to continue in the future, you also raise the core of our universal human rights system - the Treaty bodies and the Special procedures. These need to be brought back into focus in the future - not only in themselves but primarily as the basis for our work on implementation. The political will to improve the respect for human rights still needs to be firmly based on international law.
• The means to implementation has to a large extent been seen by you as capacity-building. How do you see the future for capacity-building and technical assistance in the human rights area?
• The focus you have brought to early-warning and prevention have been very welcome. Your own clear pronouncements on serious human rights violations around the world have given the UN a clear and concise human rights voice. We find your initiative on the fact-finding mission to Kenya to be a perfect example of the possibilities that exist to react quickly to emerging serious situations. We would very much like to see this Council take an equally responsible approach to its mandate on prevention. Sweden also welcomes the increased role which your office is playing in conflict areas, including as part of the broader peacekeeping efforts of the UN.
• Do you feel that there now is a systematic UN approach to human rights presences in differing situations?
• In this year when we celebrate the 60th Anniversary of UDHR, it is clear that much more remains for us to be done in the future in working to ensure universal respect for human rights. My delegation looks forward to continuing to work with you and your office to this end.
Thank you again Mme High Commissioner