A source of wealth for all societies. I personally im aware of the importance of human rights i grew up under a dictatorship and has high commissioner for refugees i witnessed the terrible repercussions of Human Rights Violations and im only too aware that we still have a long road to travel with the president this is not to deny that we have made considerable progress in the past seventy years people around the world have gained progressively greater freedoms and equality conditions a profound economic music and exploitation have been improved womens rights of advanced along with the rights of children victims of racial and religious discrimination Indigenous Peoples and persons with disabilities and perpetrators of all refigured Rights Violations ever been prosecuted by international tribunals. But hes also plain that the words of the universal declaration are not yet matched by facts on the grounds in practice people all over the world still in the world constraints on or even total denial of their human rights gender inequality remains a pressing issue with untold women and girls facing daily insecurity violence and violation of their rights we are seeing a groundswell of similar phobia rassmann intolerance including anti semitism and the muslim hatreds far right Political Parties and viewpoints seeing a resurgence of refugees and migrants are often denied their rights and then justly and fastly vilified as sets to the societies they seek to join the sprite the proven benefits they bring out dated Law Enforcement only approaches to drug control have fueled violence and human rights abuses and to the could easily see through argues and supply and in several places a heightened focus on counterterrorism is eroding respect for fundamental rights the media is increasingly under attack in all regions and the space for Civil Society and human rights defenders in particular is shrinking and becoming even more dangerous these are just general trends there are also many specific examples of the graduates abuses the least is the spider thing the long far too long for me to detail here but met me single out the plight of the rowing the muslims in myanmar i have travelled several times to Northern Rock line in my experience the row in one of the most this community the against populations in the world and that has even was even before the crisis of the past year. The private of nationality they have been subjected to extreme brutality by military forces and others and cast out of their omes and country in a clear example of ethnic cleansing there and that a siege is a group simply for who they are and this is why i took the initiative to write an official letter to Security Council about these issues and this is the First Time Since one thousand eight hundred nine that the secretary general has taken such an action during a community desperate needs immediate lifesaving assistance Long Term Solutions and just these i call on the government to ensure unfettered humanitarian access in iraq and state and i appeal to the International Community to support those where fled to bangladesh the International Community needs to come together to support the safe voluntary dignified and sustainable return of refugees to their areas of origin or choice in accordance with International Standards the recent agreement between bangladesh and me and mark can only lead to that reality through massive investment not just in reconstruction but in reconciliation and full implementation of the record an Advisory Commission recommendations is also violent vital which the president to make human rights a reality for everyone we need far more determined and coherent texan we must speak up for human rights in an impartial way without double standards and we must invest in human rights and recognize them as values in goods and to themselves and not allow human rights to be instrumental ised as a Political ToolMember States every fire in the International Human rights law and placed it at the heart of United Nations yet there is still some resistance to support United Nations action on human rights we must overcome the fos the call to me between human rights and national serenity. Human rights a national so for any to go hand in hand there is no contradiction the achievement of human rights transcends states and societies thereby reinforcing serenity if we have given much greater attention to human rights globally over the past two decades millions of lives would have been saved and that is why i appealed to Member States you know United Nations organs to can see there are to strengthen support for u. N. Action on human rights and it is why im working in the spirit of human rights up front to ensure that United Nations place is defending and promoting human rights at the core of all our efforts and emphasis on human rights lies at the heart of coffee prevention which must be our eye as the priority and the Human Rights Councils universal pure the preview is for that and essential to its subjects every state with no exceptions to the scrutiny needed for accountability and it recognizes it all Member States can make improvements and that the u. N. System has responsibilities to support states in this regard and yet there is still a profound gap between our knowledge and action this is why it is imperative for these council and United Nations as a whole to fuck because much more on implementation and National Follow up human rights must be weaved into United Nations action at all levels from analysis to planning to assessment in the county ability for progress universe so pretty of the review in the three people or the persistence of the treaty body processes provide the three members resource of standards and guidelines and we must find streamlined ways to bring the outputs of these human rights mechanisms systematically into overall u. N. Action and all our efforts to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development goals. But to uphold human rights in the first the current backlash we need to be better able to support Member States to be implemented the expert guidance coming from the human rights mechanisms we do this by helping to draft laws and policies in line with its standards and building you see to tional capacity to help safeguard these standards for example we have assisted the offices of attorney generals to investigate and prepare for the adjudication of complex cases involving International Crimes we have to develop National Human rights institutions by supporting the sharing of experiences between human rights bodies facing similar challenges and we also support a vibrant Civil Society to promote inclusive accountable and effective Public Institutions and the up victims of International Crimes to claim their rights all these requires funding human rights are not a luxury they are a collective responsibility that all Member States have signed on to mr president when key elements in upholding human rights promoting accountability and exposing the booze is our support for Civil Society i deeply admire the courage and sacrifice of human rights defenders these individuals and organizations are our eyes and ears and conscience and we should all be deeply shocked and angered by the extent to which Civil Society action suffer reprisals in tb the asian and the tech because of their work including when they engage with the u. N. System and with this council i report on the challenges facing human rights defenders to the next session of the General Assembly for now let me offer my personal condolences on the recent deaths of miss as much as one hundred a true champion of human rights. As a special rapporteur of this council is a great citizen of pakistan and the towering that he presented to the force of Civil Society she devoted her life to the pursuit of the vision of the universal declaration of human rights and she also stood for the rights of women reminding us again that womens rights are human rights she was a great example to us all finally i would like to take this opportunity to command the work of the high commissioner and to thank him for his service to the United Nations and the cause of Human Rights Commission is eight s. Shown tremendous courage you know lighting Human Rights Concerns in all regions and he has shown equal dedication in working with governments to resolve those concerns the world counts on the high commissioner is office in this council to expose Human Rights Violations wherever they are and to press for change let us use these seventy seventy first the ear of the universal declaration of human rights to continue to advance these essential work thank you. So entirely a good terrorists there setting out the scene really before the delegates attending this un Human Rights Commission session he highlighted specifically the case of the rangers saying perhaps they were the most discriminated people in the world even before this current spate of violence began last august and leading to this mass exodus of them to neighboring bangladesh are now looking at zaid rod out his say in the Human Rights Commissioner for human rights listen to him. Distinguished president of the General Assembly distinguished secretarygeneral excellences friends may i also begin by welcoming the Security Councils unanimous decision in relation to a thirty day ceasefire in syria which came after intense lobbying by our secretary general and others and we applaud sweden and quit for the leadership in the Security Council on the its really insist on its full implementation without delay however we have every reason to remain cautious as strikes on eastern world on continue this morning resolution twenty four one must also be viewed against a backdrop of seven years of failure to stop the violence seven years of unremitting and fried from mass killing. Easton over to the other besieged areas in syria its turkey and the cast size in the d r c to eyes in yemen burundi northern rakhine in myanmar have become some of the most prolific slaughterhouses of humans in recent times because not enough was done in collectively to prevent the rising horrors time and again my office and i have brought to the attention of the International Community violations of human rights which should have served as a trigger for preventive action time and again there has been minimal action and the given this is my last address says high commissioner the opening of a march session i wish to be blunt second to those who are criminally responsible those who kill and those who maim the responsibility for the continuation of so much pain lies with the five permanent members of the un Security Council so long as the veto is used by them to block any unity of action when it is needed the most when it could reduce the extreme suffering of innocent people then it is they the permanent members who must answer before the victims france has shown commendable leadership among the p five in championing a code of conduct on the use of. The United Kingdom has also joined the initiative now backed by over one hundred fifteen countries. It is time for the love of mercy that china russia and the United States join them and end the commissions use of the veto mr president a few miles away at cern physicists try to understand what our planet and the universe or universes are made of what matter is at the most basic level and how it all fits together to understand the physical world we humans have long realized we must tunnel deeply beyond molecular biology and geology and go to those subatomic spaces for answers why do we not do the same when it comes to understanding the human world why when examining the political and economic forces at work today do we not zoom in more deeply how can it be so hard to grasp that to understand states in societies their health and ills why they survive why they collapse we must scrutinize at the level of the individual or individuals human beings and their rights after all the first tear in the fabric of peace often begins with the separation of the first few fibers the serious violations of the rights of individuals the denial of economic and social rights civil and Political Rights and most of all in a persistent denial of freedom there is another parallel with physics gravity is a weak force easily defied by a small child raising a finger but there is also a strong force governing the orbits of the planets and the light so too with human rights. Some states view human rights as of second revalue far less significant than focusing on g. D. P. Growth or geopolitics while it is one of the three pillars of the un it is not its simply not treated as the equal of the other two the size of the budget is telling enough and the importance accorded to it often seems to be in the form of lip service only many in new york view it condescendingly is that we emotion or weak emotion emotional geneva scented pill are not serious enough for some of the hard core realists in the un Security Council yet like in physics we also know human rights to be a strong force perhaps the Strongest Force for whenever someone in new york calls a topic too sensitive theres a good chance human rights are involved and why sensitive because a denial of rights hollows out a government snitching machine every time the phrase too sensitive is used it therefore confirms the supreme importance of human rights and their effect as a strong force for no tradition legal or religious calls for or supports oppression none discussions about rights or avoided by those who seek deflection because of guilt those who shy away from difficult decisions and those who profit from a more superficial simple and ultimately useless analysis better just leave it to geneva they say and the crises continue to grow. To understand the maladies of societies grasp the risks of conflict and prevent or resolve them we must like particle physicists work ourselves into the smallest spaces of individuals and rights and ask the most basic questions theyre the most devastating wars of the last hundred years did not come from countries needing more g. D. P. Growth they stemmed from and to quote from the universal declaration a disregard in contempt for human rights they stand from oppression. Today oppression is fashionable again the Security State is back and fundamental freedoms are in retreat in every region of the world shame is also in retreat xenophobes in racists in europe are casting off any sense of embarrassment like Hungarys Viktor Orban who earlier this month said and i quote we do not want our color to be mixed in with others and quote do they not know what happens to minorities in societies where leaders seek Ethnic National racial purity when an elected leader blames the jews for having perpetrated the holocaust as was recently done in poland and we give this disgraceful columnar so little attention the question must be asked have we all gone completely mad mr president perhaps we have gone mad when families grieve in too many parts of the world for those lost to brutal terrorism. While the others suffer because their loved ones are arrested arbitrarily tortured and killed at a black site and were called terrorists for simply having criticized the government and others await execution for crimes committed when they were children while still more can be killed by police with impunity because they are poor or one young girls in el salvador are sentenced to thirty Years Imprisonment for miscarriages when transgender women. Punished and humiliated in public when libyan raja biz sentenced to five years for alleging torture or when seventeen year old i had ten mimis tried on twelve counts for slapping a soldier and forcing a Foreign Occupation when journalists are jailed in huge numbers in turkey and there are. Dehumanized deprived and slaughtered in the homes with all these examples bedeviling us why are we doing so little to stop them even though we should know how dangerous all of this is it is accumulating unresolved Human Rights Violations such as these are not a lack of g. D. P. Growth which will spark the conflicts that can break the world while our humanitarian colleagues tend to the victims and we salute their heroism and selflessness and their role is not to name or single out the offenders publicly that task falls to the Human Rights Community that is our tusks. For it is the worst offenders disregard and contempt for human rights which will be the eventual undoing of all of us and this we cannot allow to happen we will therefore celebrated with passion the seventy years of the universe of declaration of human rights which incarnates rights common to or the major legal and religious traditions we will defend it in this anniversary year more vigorously than ever before and along with our moral leaders the human rights defenders in every corner of the globe we will call on everyone to stand up for the rights of others this is in the end a very human thing to do Artificial Intelligence who never fully replicate the moral courage the selfsacrifice and above all the love for all human beings that sets human rights defenders apart from everyone else as i close out my term as high commissioner in the coming months i wish to end this statement by saying it has been the honor of my life to have two to have come to know many of these defendants to have worked with them and for them and i thank you for your attention. So the u. N. Human Rights CommissionZaid Raad Al Hussein a jordanian by nationality giving a fairly well argued polemic as his final his valedictory speech is giving up the role of high commissioner for Human Rights Press a huge amount of frustration with the current state of human rights of asians around the world and i think our correspondent david chaser has been listening to this with us hes there in the chamber just outside the chamber and david first going back to antonio terrace the u. N. Secretary general clearly highlighting what he thought was the the main issues before the council today and that is of course all of the Current Situation in syria especially given the recent passing approving of the resolution for a cease fire and indeed the situation regarding the ranger. Yes thats right there was a sense of frustration and anger from the secretary general he was saying that its time must be time now to implement the Security Councils resolution for a cease fire in syria and yet the bombing continues as weve been covering ourselves out of there has shown the effects of what was a chemical attack a chlorine attack on Eastern Ghouta of the suburb of damascus just east of damascus which is still under attack so far the death toll those reached five hundred twenty again pictures of children gasping for awful raw footage and this is really expressed in shown by the secretary general who tout as in his opening speech to this meeting and he said of course there are other areas which must concentrate on the over here. In myanmar he said it was clearly ethnic cleansing again and again he emphasized the fact that seventy years after the universal declaration of human rights if you look at the list of human rights abuses now around the world its almost impossible to try and pick out those that are worse but he did highlight the situation in syria he did highlight the situation in myanmar and he will also be highlighting the situation which hasnt really reached strong Media Attention yet in south sudan where awful crimes against humanity are being committed so a very strong very emotional opening speech by the secretary general of the United Nations hi david thank you very much indeed for that then lets lets actually have a listen again then to what the u. S. Actually general antonio terrace had to say about the Current Situation in eastern guta particularly of course twenty four hours or so after the passing of that resolution demanding a cease. Cannot wait its time to stop these hell on earth and that remind all parties of their absolute obligation i mean special humanitarian and human rights law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure its old times and similarly efforts to combat terrorism do not supersede these obligations just today at least eighteen people we understand have been killed in more of these government strikes only. Just outside the syrian capital damascus lets get the very latest from our correspondent zain the whole the reporting from beirut there has been no letup in the violence activist reporting more civilian deaths women and children killed in yet another airstrike also activists reporting a chlorine attack now there has been a drop in the intensity of the bombardment if you compare it to the first few days of this Bombing Campaign which were really relentless and more than five hundred people are killed a drop in the intensity but nevertheless this bombardment continues progovernment alliance putting more pressure on the people of to surrender in the progovernment alliance at the same time trying to advance on the ground trying to push into hasnt been easy the rebels have been able to hold their ground theyre deeply entrenched in eastern governments really concentrating the bombardment in frontline areas in areas and towns close to the front lines which makes it easier for them to advance because people start fleeing flee fleeing the area so no letup in the violence clearly the Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire there is a lot of loopholes one of them is that terrorist groups are excluded and everyone understands a terrorist group to mean Something Else the russians and the iranians making it clear they believe still held by terrorist