Mr President,
Sweden fully aligns itself with the statement of Slovenia on behalf of the European Union.
This Council’s task of promoting technical assistance and capacity-building is of great importance. It is a central element of the Council’s mandate to promote human rights through international dialogue and cooperation as foreseen in UNGA resolution 60/251. (Op 4 together with op 5).
Taken together with the mainstreaming mandate of the World Summit it becomes clear that technical assistance and capacity building are not only a question between the Council, the OHCHR and the State concerned – it is a question for the UN as a whole.
How can the Council ensure that the outcomes of its work on technical assistance and capacity-building are reflected in funds, programmes and other bodies? Conversely, how can the Council become perceptive to gaps or newly arising needs for capacity-building?
The most important vehicle both for identifying the need, commenting on as well as giving technical assistance and capacity-building are the mandates related to specific countries. Under this agenda item at this session, we have had interactive dialogues with a number of mandate-holders. They have all demonstrated the excellent value of these mandates in identifying measures for further improvement on the ground in the countries concerned.
Likewise, the thematic mandates continue to prove their great value in providing us with early and forward-looking suggestions on how and where we need to further the respect for human rights. In 2007 alone, thematic rapporteurs made around 50 country visits. The reports of these visits are of use to the whole UN system with regard to that specific country and should be looked at closely by this Councel when deliberating on possible further mandates for technical assistance and capacity-building.
Since we are on the subject of visits, it has been calculated that rapporteurs have over 250 outstanding requests for country visits. Sweden takes this opportunity to call on all States to co-operate with all the special procedures of the Council, the first step being to honour requests for visits.
Another example is for the Council to allow very comprehensive participation when deliberating on specific issues. The very useful discussion we had at the Council’s 6th session of mainstreaming of gender issues was one such example. A wide range of UN bodies participated.
One of the central tasks ahead in the capacity-building work of the Council will be in managing the outcomes of the Universal Periodic Reviews. While it is too much to expect that the reviews generate overall master plans for all human rights work in individual countries, Sweden hopes that they will both provide general guidance and identify specific measures that will bring added value to Human rights work.
The fundamental purpose of the Council’s work is to further the goal of improving human rights situations on the ground. Ensuring that the Council’s advice on technical assistance and capacity-building work contribute to that goal is a task we must focus more on in the future.
Thank you.