Statement by India at the First Intersessional Seminar on the Contribution of the Human Rights Council to the Prevention of Human Rights Violations(9-10 April 2019) under Panel 2: The preventive role of Special procedures and how this role can be enhanced delivered by Sh. Animesh Choudhury, First Secretary.[Geneva,9 April 2019]

Thank You Chair,

At the outset, India would like to thank the panellists for their presentations.

2. India acknowledges the role of the Special Procedures towards productive collaboration in strengthening the capacity of Member States. This underlines the importance of the mandate holders to carry out all their duties in conformity with their mandate and the Code and the Code of Conduct as stipulated in Resolution 5/2.

3. However, we also need to consider that human rights issues cannot be approached in isolation, ignoring the complex and intricate relationship between human rights, development, democracy and international cooperation. Hence it is imperative that mandate holders need to adopt a more constructive and non-confrontational approach that is sensitive to the genuine concerns and capacity constraints of countries.

4. In accordance with resolution 5/1, the selection and appointment of the mandate holders should be based on equitable representation along with an appropriate representation of different legal systems.

5. An aggressive ‘naming and shaming’ exercise has its limits, is often counter-productive and tends to divide member states into opposing camps. Hence it is imperative that mandate holders should rely on objective and dependable facts as emphasized in Articles 6, 8 and 9 of the Code of Conduct.The Universal Declaration of Human Rights acknowledged the primacy of States in promotion and protection of human rights. Subsequent UN documents on human rights further reaffirmed the primary responsibility of States in this regard. Any attempt to undermine the primacy of States towards ensuring universal promotion and protection of human rights and freedoms would be counterproductive.

6. It is also our firm belief that the practice of issuing detailed press releases at the end of country visits by special Rapporteurs that are effectively executive summaries of substantive issues and recommendations addressed in the eventual report should be discontinued forthwith.

7. The communications from the mandate holders should be issued after ensuring that domestic remedies have been exhausted. There is also a need to ensure full transparency in the funding of the special procedures as underscored in UNGA Resolution 65/281.

8. In view of the above points, we believe that the Council should consider a review, rationalization and improvement of mandates with a focus on the relevance, scope and content of the mandates in the time leading up to the HRC Review in 2021.

Thank You.