EU Statement - HRC60 - Item 2, General Debate

EU Statement - HRC60 - Item 2, General Debate

UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL

60^th session

Item 2, General Debate

Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General

EU Statement

Mister President,

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

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

We thank the High Commissioner for his oral update and all the reports submitted to this session. In these difficult times for human rights, your role and the work of your office are more important than ever. Today's update showed once again the wide spectrum of your Office's essential work for the promotion of respect, protection and fulfilment of human rights across the world. We strongly support your principled human rights leadership in particular in the face of grave violations and abuses that require justice and accountability.

The EU reaffirms its steadfast support for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to operate independently and with adequate resources. We also support your role in coordinating the human rights cluster of the UN80 process and thank you for the inclusive consultations thus far. Your proposals for streamlining and better efficiency and effectiveness will be crucial inputs in this process. In the 80th anniversary year of the United Nations, we are firmly committed to upholding and strengthening its human rights pillar.

We refer to the EU statements during the respective interactive dialogues on the situations in Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Sudan, and DRC, and will also address throughout the session many other situations such as Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine or the Occupied Palestinian Territory, where we will raise, inter alia, the catastrophic humanitarian situation.

We remain seriously concerned about the increasing restrictions on human rights and fundamental freedoms in several countries across the Middle East and North Africa, for instance in Libya and Egypt. We notably observe limitations on the rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. Discrimination against women and girls, migrants including displaced persons, persons belonging to national or ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities, LGBTI persons, and persons in vulnerable situations remains widespread. The operating space for civil society organisations, human rights defenders, humanitarian and development actors, as well as journalists and other media workers, is further shrinking. Arbitrary detention, political imprisonment and prolonged pre-trial detention are widely used, while fair trial guarantees are not sufficiently guaranteed. The continued use of the death penalty in several countries across the region remains a grave concern.

Regarding Yemen, the EU strongly condemns the continuing arbitrary detention of personnel from the UN, diplomatic missions and international and non-governmental organisations by the Houthis since June 2024, including OHCHR staffers, and reiterates its call for their immediate and unconditional release. The EU further condemns recent forced and attempted entry into UNICEF and WFP premises in Sana'a and the arbitrary and illegal detention of at least 19 additional UN staff. The detention of aid workers worsens an already dire ad rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Yemen.

The fall of the criminal Assad regime marks a historic moment for the Syrian people. The European Union is committed to supporting a peaceful and inclusive, Syrian-led and Syrian owned transition. While we welcome the authorities' engagement with UN mechanisms and the establishment of Syrian institutions on transitional justice and missing persons, we strongly condemn the recent violence and human rights violations and abuses in various regions of Syria, especially crimes perpetrated against civilians by several armed groups as reported by the Commission of Inquiry. All those responsible for violations of international humanitarian law or violations and abuses of human rights - committed before and/or after the fall of the Assad regime - must be held accountable and brought to justice. The EU calls for human rights to be respected, protected and fulfilled for all Syrians without distinction of any kind. The EU further calls on the transitional authorities to ensure the protection of all Syrians regardless of ethnic or religious background, to deliver justice through an inclusive transitional justice process, and to hold all perpetrators accountable - including with the support of international monitoring mechanisms. The EU stresses the importance of protecting and empowering civil society, women, and independent media as key actors on Syria's path toward peace and reconciliation. We encourage the Syrian authorities to continue cooperation with and grant full access to the UN Commission of Inquiry, the OHCHR, and other relevant mechanisms.

We welcome recent improvements of the human rights situation in Bahrain, including on women's rights, and the pardons of more than 3400 prisoners in Bahrain in 2024. We encourage Bahrain to continue along this path and to further align its policies with international human rights law, especially with regard to human rights defenders.

The EU welcomes Ethiopia's constructive engagement with the UPR process and its continuing efforts as member of the Council. The EU urges Ethiopian authorities to uphold human rights throughout the country, especially in the Amhara and Oromia regions, as well as to guarantee the independence of the media and the freedom of expression, in the context of the closure of civic space,. We follow with great concern the security situation in Tigray. We call for the full implementation of a Transitional Justice Policy aligned with international good practice to ensure accountability for human rights violations and abuses. The EU encourages OHCHR to continue monitoring and reporting to the HRC on the situation in Ethiopia.

The EU expresses its concern about the backsliding in the areas of democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights in Georgia. We call on the Georgian authorities to ensure that its civil society is able to function without restrictions and to uphold the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly, of association and of expression, to end widespread intimidation, political persecution, reported torture and ill-treatment of activists, political opposition, civil society and journalists. We urge Georgia to investigate all allegations of excessive use of force by law enforcement officials and to hold to account those responsible.

High Commissioner,

In closing, we thank you once again for your unwavering human rights leadership and assure you that we remain fully committed to supporting you and your Office in all possible ways.

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