STATEMENT by Minister Counsellor Ms Anniken Enersen
Item 10 - Technical assistance and capacity-building, including the report on Afghanistan, 19 June, 2020 - Joint statement by Singapore and Norway
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Thank you, Madam President,
I am pleased to deliver the following statement on behalf of Singapore and Norway.
Capacity-constraints too often hold developing countries back from implementing the accepted recommendations received from the human rights mechanisms, including the UPR.
This explains the central importance of the Council’s mandate to provide ‘advisory services, technical assistance and capacity-building […] in consultation with and with the consent of Member States concerned.’
There is an urgent need to consider how the Council and the wider UN could strengthen the mobilisation and the delivery of capacity building support on the ground, including the transfer of knowhow and the sharing of good practices.
Against this background, Singapore and Norway, with the support of URG, organised a pilot ‘capacity-building support forum’ on 4 February as a voluntary platform for States to present information on their human rights achievements and challenges, and highlight areas where they would benefit from international support. These ‘requests’ were matched with capacity-building support from other States, as well as UN agencies and programmes, in a North-South, South-South and trilateral framework.
On this occasion, 25 States participated, along with the OHCHR. 7 States made requests, and 5 extended offers of support.
A report of the meeting has been shared with participants. We also hope to make this more widely available.
It is the intention of the co-hosts that in one year’s time, the ‘request-offer’ pairings will return to provide a progress update.
As a pilot effort, we hope to learn from it and build a more inclusive and effective system.
Thank you, Madame President.