Remarks by the President of the General Assembly
H.E. Ms. Annalena Baerbock
at the?plenary meeting on Agenda item 66 ¨C Report of the Human Rights Council
31 October?2025
?
[As delivered]
Your Excellency Ambassador J¨¹rg Lauber, President of the Human Rights Council,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Eighty years ago, the founders of our United Nations emerged from the devastation of war determined to build a world governed by rules, not chaos.
They enshrined not only principles for peace among nations, but also a vision rooted in ¡°fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, and in the equal rights of men and women.¡±
They understood that without clear, binding norms defining the rights and obligations of States and peoples alike, the world would again descend into chaos.
Yet today, both international law and human rights are under growing pressure.
Some brazenly dismiss the rule of law.
Others question the principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ¡ª including the commitment to non-discrimination regardless of race, religion, nationality, or gender.
In their most extreme form in Afghanistan, where the Taliban deny women and girls even the most basic human rights.
The frequency globally of such abuses is shocking.
But we cannot remain passive, for passivity soon becomes complacency.
Nor can we allow cynics to weaponize these failures to discredit the institutions itself that protect human dignity.
The answer must be to strengthen, not to weaken, the bodies that stand for international law and justice ¡ª including the Human Rights Council.
Standing for them with self-confidence, because of the protection of our institutions, of our Charter.
Upholding human rights is therefore not only a moral obligation.
It is the foundation upon which peace, development, and stability rests.
Since its establishment in 2006, the Human Rights Council has stood at the center of the international response to human rights violations wherever and whenever they occur and by its work did not only make individual rights and individual people stronger but also ¨C you the Member States.
As it remains the primary intergovernmental platform for dialogue and action on global human rights challenges but also as one of the most important intergovernmental platforms for exchanging best practices between Member States and learning from each other and making each other stronger.
Among others, especially through the Universal Periodic Review, which enables Member States to exchange experiences, receive recommendations from their peers, and strengthen their own human rights records through dialogue, cooperation, and best practice exchange.
Together with the Council¡¯s mechanisms ¡ª from Special Procedures to its technical assistance and investigative bodies ¡ª this forms the backbone of the multilateral human rights system.
In this regard, I would like to thank the Human Rights Council¡¯s clear and ongoing commitment.
Today¡¯s presentation is again a crucial opportunity of the report by the President of the Human Rights Council to reinforce coherence between the Council and the General Assembly.
As the Council¡¯s success depends not only on its own work but strongly on the political support of Member States.
Like the broader United Nations, yet it can only deliver within its means.
In this regard, it is crucial to sustain financial contributions in line with their tasks and that we avail the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ80 initiative to make the Human Rights Council more integrated, efficient and responsive – all while recalling that efficiency must be in the pursuit of delivery.
The Secretary-General¡¯s efforts to strengthen system-wide coordination of human rights by embedding it across mandates, rather than allowing it to be siloed or fragmented, are crucial in this endeavour.
And we have already seen what this can look like. For instance through the merging of the Mandates of the Special Rapporteurs on contemporary forms of slavery and on trafficking in persons.
Excellencies,
As I said previously, by reinforcing the Human Rights Council, we do not only advance individual human rights ¡ª we strengthen every Member State and the international system as a whole.
I therefore wish to thank again the President of the Human Rights Council as well as the High Commissioner and the whole team for their leadership and the Council¡¯s vital work.
With that, I now give the floor to the President of the Human Rights Council, His Excellency, J¨¹rg Lauber, to present the Council¡¯s report.