The success of the UN Human Rights Council will be measured by our ability effectively to prevent events such as in Srebrenica or the Ruandan genocide in future, Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, President in office of the Council, declared on behalf of the EU at the opening of the inaugural session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
She stressed the international community's responsibility to provide timely, effective protection through this new UN institution to the potential victims of human rights violations. “Today we have the chance to turn over a new page in UN human rights work. It is our joint responsibility to ensure that the new Human Rights Council actually brings added value for those in need of our protection and our support. A great deal remains to be done. There is no room for complacency while individuals are not in possession of their full human rights”, she said.
Two of the greatest human rights challenges according to Ursula Plassnik are the continuing discrimination against women and girls and compliance with human rights standards in the battle against terrorism.
“Given the persisting high levels of violence against women, the increase in trafficking of women and girls and the growing impact of AIDS, the protection of the human rights of women and girls must be driven forward with undiminished energy”, Plassnik stressed. In this, she said, the EU stood “side by side with women who stand up for the rights of those most in need of protection, often at the risk of their own safety and freedom, and who are taking the struggle for their freedom into their own hands”.
Plassnik paid tribute to one of those “fearless” women, the Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who celebrates her 61st birthday on 19 June under house arrest by the military regime of Burma/Myanmar. The EU and the Austrian Presidency of the EU Council have repeatedly called for her release.
Echoing a statement by Aung San Suu Kyi, according to which “fear is not the normal state of civilised human beings”, Plassnik stressed that fear must not be allowed to gain the upper hand in the fight against terrorism either: “Respect for human rights is not an obstacle to security. On the contrary: in combating terrorism, we must pay scrupulous attention to compliance with human rights and the rule of law. There cannot be a legal vacuum in this area. In particular, torture is, and must continue to be, proscribed.”
Foreign Minister Plassnik also met with UN General Secretary Kofi Annan and the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross, Jakob Kellenberger, in the margins of the meeting. The new beginning in UN human rights work by the UN Human Rights Council was also the main topic of her meeting with the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour. "The High Commissioner has a key role in the next few months in placing this young forum on a solid footing. The EU wishes to work together closely with her in this process”, Plassnik said remarked.
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