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New Zealand joins others in expressing its appreciation to Ambassador Uhomoibhi for the report of the second year of the Human Rights Council.
The Council’s foundations are the comprehensive human rights treaties we have negotiated over the past 60 years. These treaties provide a common understanding of the concept of human rights, most importantly their universality and indivisibility.
New Zealand wishes to see the Council live up to its mandate and reach its full potential - to respond quickly and effectively to human rights situations while promoting open, inclusive dialogue and cooperation with concerned countries. We remain convinced that the promotion and protection of human rights can help achieve development and security; and that the three pillars are mutually reinforcing.
The Council must help States effectively address gaps between the standards embodied in the core human rights treaties and the every day reality that individuals face.
As a demonstration of our commitment to human rights, New Zealand is standing for election to the Human Rights Council next year, and we hope to be the first member on the body from the Pacific region.
The Human Rights Council provides an opportunity to focus on innovation and the exchange of effective practices in the implementation of human rights. The report of the second year illustrates the Council’s evolving capacity to implement its promotion and protection mandate. Building on the foundations laid in the institution-building package adopted only last year, we have seen an important consolidation of the Council’s institutions and mechanisms. In particular, the renewal of mandates under its system of special procedures, including those on specific human rights situations, and the commencement of the universal periodic review.
Review and assessment is a critical element in the effective implementation of human rights and in this regard, New Zealand welcomes the establishment of the Universal Periodic Review.
We hope that an over-arching and regular review of every country through UPR, in addition to the more comprehensive and specific reporting processes of the treaty bodies, will help reduce the gap between policy and practice.
We are currently examining our own human rights performance in preparation for participating in the UPR next year and have recently completed a round of domestic consultations on our own report.
It is only over time that we will see the true results of UPR. However, our initial view is that the UPR has great potential. We are encouraged by the evolution in the scope of the recommendations which have emerged from the first two sessions of the UPR. We urge States to remain committed to the process through the implementation of the recommendations.
The exchange of effective practices and the identification of capacity-building and technical assistance needs are essential to the UPR process. For New Zealand, a Pacific nation, we are hopeful that the UPR will facilitate dialogue with our Pacific neighbours on human rights. Earlier this year we were happy to assist the Kingdom of Tonga to prepare its UPR report. We admire Tonga’s commitment to the UPR process and hope that it will provide an example to other Pacific nations in the preparation, participation and implementation of the UPR. In support of UPR, New Zealand will host a seminar in early 2009 for Pacific countries to exchange views on the UPR with a view to building capacity in the region to engage in the process and coordination amongst partners.
There are many positive developments in the Council’s working methods and, as with any new body, the Council’s working methods will evolve as it establishes routine practices and learns to manage its workload. We welcome the increased transparency of sessions, including webcasting, and are encouraged by the increasingly open negotiation of resolutions.
New Zealand is, however, concerned at the increasing pressures on small delegations which undermine their effective participation in the Council and its working groups. At this juncture, we look to the Council to consider a more predictable and manageable work programme, to address the proliferation of meetings and to identify ways to consolidate the wealth of information it processes through its regular and special sessions.
We urge the Council to move towards a clear and predictable annual programme of work. We encourage further work to be done to make more effective use of meeting time for working groups, the streamlining of texts and a renewed focus on the implementation, rather than the restatement, of agreed standards.
New Zealand believes the Council can contribute to development and security through the effective implementation of human rights. If elected to the Council, we will contribute to the realisation of this objective in a constructive, fair and open manner.
The Council must not let debate on difficult human rights issues undermine progress on the broad agenda of human rights, where cooperation and consensus has been the norm and where we can and must improve the standard of implementation. The Council can and should make clear progress, in cooperation with the broader UN system, on the implementation of our common commitments to universal human rights.
We look to the Council to provide leadership in effective practices to promote and protect human rights at the national level, including with respect to the management of competing priorities in implementing and reporting on human rights obligations. And we look to delegations to focus on the implementation of the standards we have agreed in the past 60 years, which are comprehensive, robust and universal.
