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Permanent Mission of India
Geneva
23rd Session of the Human Rights Council
(27 May-14 June 2013)
Item 2: Update by the High Commissioner for Human Rights and General Debate
Statement by India
President,
We would like to express our appreciation to the High Commissioner for her statement. We welcome the wide range of human rights issues that she has highlighted. The report is refreshing in its candor. It is gratifying that she has taken up issues raised by many delegations in their statements in past sessions of the Council. We encourage the High Commissioner to continue her efforts in an impartial and non-selective manner.
2. We share the High Commissioner’s concern at the unabated violence in Syria and the suffering it continues to cause to the Syrian people. The recourse to arms by various sides has undermined the efforts for a political solution. The violence has now assumed a serious sectarian character, in which terrorist groups have entrenched themselves. In Syria the only way to stop the human rights violations is to stop the violence and to start a political dialogue.
President,
3. Human Rights situations should not be confused with humanitarian situations. We believe that the promotion and protection of human rights entails focusing on both conflict ridden as well as peaceful societies. We have witnessed, even recently, that grave human rights violations take place even in apparently peaceful societies. This reinforces the need for equal attention on promotional aspects of human rights.
4. We welcome and share High Commissioner’s observation that the impact of the global financial crisis has been “foisted upon those least able to absorb its costs”. The continuing grim global economic situation has further undermined the limited capacity of developing countries to cope with shocks. With unemployment a problem the world over and over a billion people in extreme poverty and hunger in developing countries, we cannot afford but to make inclusive growth our priority.
5. This brings to attention the imperative of reforming global governance structures and the need for mainstreaming human rights in the multilateral system. The reform and reconstruction of the financial system has to be a collective international effort since borders no longer confine financial institutions. At the Rio+20 Summit, the international community renewed its commitment to sustainable development, recognizing poverty to be the greatest global challenge. Human rights can only be enjoyed when people are at peace with each other and with the environment around them. We must, therefore, take a holistic and balanced approach as has been taken by the High Commissioner.
Thank you.
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