EU NGO Human Rights Forum (Brussels, 9th December 2025) - Opening Remarks: Global Trends and Emerging Challenges in Combating Discrimination

EU NGO Human Rights Forum (Brussels, 9th December 2025) - Opening Remarks: Global Trends and Emerging Challenges in Combating Discrimination

Dear colleagues, distinguished Human Rights Defenders and representatives of Civil Society Organizations, esteemed guests,

It is a great honour for me to speak at this edition of the EU NGO Human Rights Forum dedicated to realizing equality and to the fight against discrimination globally. Our gathering comes at a profoundly symbolic moment. Tomorrow, the international community will observe Human Rights Day, December 10th, marking the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The UDHR is almost 80-year-old, but it is not merely an old document; it is our foundational promise - a promise that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, "without distinction of any kind."

This promise, however, remains still unfulfilled for a large number of people and in many places and in multiple cases, we even see a backsliding of rights, especially when it comes to the equality and non-discrimination agenda. It is my firm believe that we, as the EU, need to be at the forefront of reversing this trend.

Today, in every corner of the world, discrimination is not a relic of the past; it is a live, toxic, and sometimes even violent reality. It is the systemic denial of opportunity, dignity, and even safety, based on who you are, what you believe, or where you come from.

You are all here today because you have your own specific experiences that you are prepared to share with the rest of us. Your voices, your data, and your presence here are crucial, for the challenges before us are acute. Looking around, I see a testament to the persistent, vital power of civil society - and that fills me with joy and hope. All Human Rights Defenders and Civil Society Organizations gathered here - many of them operating under immense pressure and risk - deserve our deepest respect and most heartfelt appreciation for their tireless, often dangerous, efforts.

We are here today to discuss "Global Trends and Emerging Challenges in Combating Discrimination." This is not an abstract academic topic; it is an emergency in real-time. Around the world, the promise of dignity and equality - the very foundation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - is being systematically eroded.

Combating discrimination globally is not an act of charity; it is an essential act to realize global security and stability. When entire populations are systematically denied economic opportunity, political voice, and basic dignity - even the essence of who they are - when they are relegated to the powerlessness - tensions rise, trust erodes, and conflicts often become inevitable. Structural discrimination is the kindling that feeds authoritarianism and systemic human rights pushback across every continent.

Furthermore, when discrimination intersects, when one individual experiences discrimination on the basis of multiple grounds, the harm multiplies exponentially. We are not just fighting a problem; we are fighting a complex, interwoven web of global exclusion.

If I am to identify global challenges in the fight against discrimination, I don't have to look too far, because a whole range of current global issues that I regularly encounter in the implementation of my mandate are relevant from the perspective of all human rights, including the right to equal treatment.

From my point of view, the most serious issues include:

1. The proliferation of violent conflicts, often accompanied by a complete disregard for the principles of humanitarian law and a lack of accountability for perpetrators of the most serious human rights violations.

2. The ever-shrinking civic space and restrictions on civil society, which is crucial not only for monitoring human rights, but also for providing a whole range of services and functions where the state's efforts are insufficient.

3. A new rise of authoritarian regimes, including increasing interference in electoral processes, such as suppression of the opposition, intimidation of voters, violent suppression of peaceful protests, and manipulation of election results. Not to mention the endless prolongation of election periods and postponement of election dates under various pretexts. Respect for minority groups and any social diversity tends to be kept to a minimum under authoritarian regimes, or individual groups may even be pitted against each other.

4. A backtracking on rights-based language itself - language that has been hard - fought by generations before us, and that we should do our utmost to preserve for generations to come. If we do not do so, we risk witnessing not only a backtracking of language, but the rights themselves.

These are just the major global challenges I have encountered since taking office. I know that many others, such as technology, will be discussed in separate panels, so I will not go into them in depth here. I would rather use my time to familiarize you with the specific issues that my office and I are dealing with.

The fight against discrimination on any ground features prominently in many human rights dialogues with third countries or regional organizations. Just this fall, I co-chaired the human rights dialogues with AU, ASEAN, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Colombia. Civil society organisations highlighted how discrimination intersects across gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and migration status - shaping vulnerabilities and limiting equal participation in society. I heard deeply concerning testimonies about how NGOs are being seriously limited in their activities by restrictive laws or simply by a lack of funding, how religion can be weaponize against women and minorities or how migrant and refugee communities suffer from ever-increasing stigmatization.

I am particularly worried about anti LGBTQIA+ legislation and the accompanied propaganda spread especially from Russia across Eastern Europe and Centra Asia. In other countries, I encounter legislation criminalizing LGBTQIA+ people (Uganda) or physical attacks on LGBTQIA+ people (Egypt). On the other hand, I also encounter positive cases. During human rights dialogue with Brazil, I had an opportunity to exchange with National Secretary for LGBTQIA+ rights on policies. I learned for instance that the country has taken an important step to improve the access of LGBTQIA+ persons to health and employment.

Likewise, I closely follow the issue of violence against women and girls, especially during armed conflicts. I welcome steps by some governments and stand ready to use my mandate to further assist partners in prioritising legal reforms at a national level and through the ratification of Istanbul Convention. At the same time, I intend to continue pushing to ensure that humanitarian law is respected by all parties to ongoing conflicts anywhere in the world.

During my recent visit to Lebanon, which coincided with the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, I was pleased to learn about the implementation of the National Disability Allowance, the mainstreaming of disability across the National Social Protection Strategy in the country.

An integral part of my agenda is also monitoring the situation of indigenous peoples in various parts of the world. Given the current tense post-election situation in Tanzania, my thoughts are now with representatives of the Maasai community from the Ngorongoro area, whom I met quite recently and who are experiencing a number of human rights violations, including eviction from their ancestral lands, administrative harassment, limitation of civic and social rights.

In my recent engagements, it became clear that discrimination based on religion or belief continues to erode social cohesion and fuel division in many parts of the world. In Southeast Asia, civil society raised concerns about the instrumentalization of religion for political purposes, the targeting of religious minorities, and the rise of hate speech and disinformation that deepens societal polarization.

The European Union, founded on the principles of dignity, freedom, and equality, has a distinct and powerful role to play in this global shift. We take the issue of non-discrimination very seriously at the European level, and I am sure that we can do more to ensure better implementation of our commitment on the fight against discrimination in our external policy:

1. The EU invests billions in international cooperation. We must strengthen the conditionality of these funds, ensuring that our resources are never, tacitly or directly, used by partner countries to promote discriminatory practices or undermine rule of law institutions.

2. We must continue to invest in and localize funding for CSOs, especially for those community-based, who understand the ground reality better than anyone.

3. Our commitment to protecting Human Rights Defenders is non-negotiable. We must scale up our emergency support to HRD, by providing rapid and flexible assistance allowing for swift and safe temporary relocation when their lives are in danger.

4. We need to pay more attention to situations in which multiple grounds for discrimination are encountered in one person and accommodate the understanding that cases like these create compounded experiences of discrimination and vulnerability into our anti-discrimination frameworks.

The proximity of this Forum to Human Rights Day is a powerful reminder that the Universal Declaration is not a finished product; it is a mandate. It requires our constant action.

As we spend these two days in dialogue and deliberation, let us commit to a bold new vision: one where we see the discrimination not as a singular shadow, but as a complex pattern of light and dark. Let us align our legal structures with the complexity of human life. Let us use the power of the EU, and the fierce dedication of this NGO community, to forge a world where dignity is indivisible, equality is treated as a cross-cutting issue, and the promise of the Universal Declaration is finally a lived reality for everyone, everywhere.

I wish us a fruitful and inspiring discussion and a lot of interesting encounters.

Thank you.