EU Statement - HRC60 - Item 3 General Debate Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to[...]

EU Statement - HRC60 - Item 3 General Debate Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development

UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

60^th session

Item 3 General Debate

Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development

EU Statement

Mr. President,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union.

The candidate countries North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Albania*, Ukraine, Republic of Moldova and Georgia, the EFTA country Liechtenstein, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Armenia align themselves with this statement.

We thank the Secretary-General and the High Commissioner and his Office for their reports under Item 3, as well as the briefing by the ECOSOC President. Closer cooperation between the HRC and bodies under the two other pillars of the United Nations is imperative to ensure this Council can fulfil its mandate. We regret that several mandated reports have not been possible for the Office to deliver owing to the liquidity crisis affecting the UN.

The EU reaffirms its strong and unequivocal opposition to the use of death penalty in all cases and in all circumstances. The death penalty is a cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment contrary to the right to life. Its abolition is essential to ensure respect for human dignity. We welcome the growing worldwide trend for its abolishment and regret that the number of recorded executions has seen an increase in the last year at the hands of a few retentionist States. The EU calls for an open and transparent debate on the application of the death penalty in all States that have not yet abolished the death penalty, and calls on them to establish a moratorium as a first step towards its full abolishment. After Madrid in 2013, Brussels in 2019 and Berlin in 2022, the next World congress against the death penalty, hosted in Paris in June 2026, will be the opportunity to move forward on this agenda.

We reaffirm the importance of a human rights-based approach when developing policies and programmes to reduce preventable maternal mortality and morbidity and ensure access to sexual and reproductive health-care services. We welcome the publication of the newly updated technical guidance produced by the Office of the High Commissioner, informed by its global analysis gathering different regional perspectives in the area of preventable maternal mortality and morbidity. In this regard, the EU underlines the importance not only of addressing health system gaps, but also of tackling the root causes of preventable maternal deaths and underlying social determinants of health, and of upholding the equal right of women to decide autonomously in matters regarding their own lives and health.

We underline the contributions of and particular challenges faced by Indigenous Peoples as reported by the UN human rights mechanisms, including in regards to obstacles to their enjoyment of their rights, as set out in UNDRIP and international human rights law. This includes lack of access to education, employment, economic opportunities and healthcare and as well as limited participation in decision-making processes. We stress the importance of the full, equal, and meaningful participation of Indigenous Peoples on issues affecting them, including the meetings of the Human Rights Council and other relevant UN bodies.

The EU believes that the full realisation of all human rights for all is essential to achieve inclusive and sustainable development that leaves no one behind. The right to development is rooted in the universality, indivisibility, interrelation, and interdependence of all human rights. We remain convinced that development contributes to the enjoyment of other human rights, while achieving development is not a necessary pre-condition for respecting human rights, nor could lack of development progress ever justify human rights violations.

I thank you.

*North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.