{"id":180366,"date":"2019-02-25T15:10:08","date_gmt":"2019-02-25T20:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/pga\/73\/?p=180366"},"modified":"2019-02-26T15:36:05","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T20:36:05","slug":"opening-of-the-high-level-segment-of-the-40th-session-of-the-human-rights-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/pga\/73\/2019\/02\/25\/opening-of-the-high-level-segment-of-the-40th-session-of-the-human-rights-council\/","title":{"rendered":"Opening of the High Level Segment of the 40th session of the Human Rights Council"},"content":{"rendered":"

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– As delivered –<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Statement by H.E. Mrs. Mar\u00eda Fernanda Espinosa Garc\u00e9s, President of the 73rd<\/sup> Session of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ General Assembly<\/h3>\n

18 September 2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Your Excellency Coly Seck, President of the Human Rights Council,<\/p>\n

Your Excellency Ignazio Cassis, Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland,<\/p>\n

Mr. Ant\u00f3nio Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations,<\/p>\n

Mrs. Michelle Bachelet, High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights,<\/p>\n

Mr. Michael M\u00f8ller, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva,<\/p>\n

Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen:<\/p>\n

It is always a pleasure to return to Geneva, the capital of Peace and a symbol of multilateralism.<\/p>\n

Each session of this Council is an opportunity to renew our commitment with human rights, especially now, in a time when the most elemental principles of multilateralism are threatened, even the international architecture of human rights could be at risk.<\/p>\n

The Council starts this session in a world that is even more divided than last year. A world with more migrants and refugees, more victims of armed conflicts, more women and girls who are victims of violence and with not-so-encouraging news about the future if we do not take urgent actions to stop climate change, an increasingly latent threat for our planet.<\/p>\n

Today we start one more session of the Human Rights Council in a world where extreme nationalism and xenophobia remind us of a past that cannot be repeated in today’s world.<\/p>\n

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Excellencies,<\/p>\n

Last December we commemorated 70 years of one of the most important legacies of the United Nations Organization: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a true jewel of multilateralism, founded in the premise that all persons are born free and equal, both in dignity and rights.<\/p>\n

Last December we also commemorated twenty-five years of the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action, which acknowledged the universal, inseparable and interdependent nature of human rights.<\/p>\n

This Council is a fundamental pillar in the international architecture that was built from the General Assembly over 73 years by means of conventions and Pacts, creating special protection procedures and mechanisms, and an immense production of resolutions which, day by day, have enhanced and molded the international human rights law. <\/p>\n

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