23rd session of the
Human Rights Council
Item 8
Follow up to and implementation of the
Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action
Delivered by Renate Bloem
Thank you Mr. President,
During this year of the 20th anniversary of the Vienna Conference, CIVICUS wishes to reiterate the mile stone achievements and fundamental agreements reached in consensus by the 171 participating UN member States during this Conference. The legacy still shapes the human rights agenda of today:
- Universality and indivisibility of human rights: the freedom from want and fear
- Women’s Rights are Human Rights
- Civil Society as crucial to the framework of human rights
- Establishment of the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights
Mr. President,
We have the blueprints and standards, translated into robust international human rights law, with the exception of the creation of the High Commissioner whose incumbent and predecessors met and fulfilled the high expectations, it is too often the political will for implementation which is missing.
This Council was created to be the prime body for the promotion and protection of all human rights for people on the ground, mostly for those whose rights are still grossly violated. However when they come to claim their rights, because they feel abandoned by their governments, this Council is often marred in narrow political debate rather than measuring benchmarks of agreed instruments of protection.
The Vienna Conference met just after the Berlin Wall had fallen, opening an era of new hope and perspectives. The Conference was therefore clear: human rights are closely related to the way in which states govern their people and to the level of democracy in their political regimes.
What we are witnessing today is that too many countries fall back into autocratic regimes, afraid of critical voices and introducing an unacceptable shift in the legislative environment with undue barriers for the enjoyment of most basic human rights of the freedoms of assembly, association and expression.
But silencing human rights defenders is not a solution. Citizens always know better than governments what works for them. History has shown that oppression proved its limits and that it is futile for governments to curb people’s freedoms. It is a question of when, not if, citizens rise up to the challenge and often overthrow political systems in which their rights are curtailed.
CIVICUS therefore calls on all governments to revive the Vienna spirit and muster a concerted effort for better implementation of all civil, economic, political, social and cultural rights.
I thank you
