STATEMENT
Human Rights Council 50th Session.
Statement delivered by Ambassador Tine Mørch Smith,
Permanent Representative of Norway on behalf of a group of countries
Check against delivery
8 July 2022
Mr President,
I deliver this statement on behalf of a cross-regional group of countries.
During this Council session, we have adopted key resolutions related to gender equality and reinforcing the importance of promoting and protecting the rights of women and girls globally.
[We are pleased to see the adoption of resolutions on important topics such as discrimination against women and girls, violence against women and girls, discrimination and violence on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and female genital mutilation.]
[We continue to commend and strongly support the leadership of all those delegations, civil society organizations and UN bodies that have, and continue, to bring these important issues to forth front of the Council’s work. ]
It is with these initiatives that we can demonstrate the importance and relevance of the Human Rights Council in moving forward towards a world that respects human rights.
Regrettably at this session, we have seen moves to retreat from human rights protections that this very Council has previously supported and acknowledged. We believe that we collectively have a duty to promote progress to ensuring human rights for all, including to protect human rights on the basis of gender.
During the last weeks, we have spent countless hours defending these rights and the accepted language.
We have heard States describing this session with words such as retrograde, backsliding, weakening, narrowing and watering out existing rights.
As the main UN human rights body, we believe we can strive to do better.
We come from a multitude of cultural, social and economic backgrounds. But as UN Member States and signatories to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we all share the same commitment to the equality of all individuals as rights holders, and the universality of these rights.
As States have said before me today, we cannot deny that women and girls are both rights holders and key agents of change. All of us have different identities. This diversity should not be a seen as a threat, but as a resource that can contribute to further development of our societies.
We hope that we can learn from our experiences this session, and be ready to bridge differences through open dialogue and to achieve more when we meet again in September.
I thank you.
- Albania
- Andorra
- Argentina
- Australia
- Austria
- Belgium
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Bulgaria
- Canada
- Chile
- Costa Rica
- Cyprus
- Colombia
- Croatia
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Ecuador
- Estonia
- Fiji
- Finland
- France
- Georgia
- Germany
- Greece
- Iceland
- Ireland
- Israel
- Italy
- Japan
- Korea, Republic of
- Latvia
- Liechtenstein
- Lithuania
- Luxembourg
- Malta
- Marshall Islands
- Mexico
- Montenegro
- Netherlands
- New Zealand
- North Macedonia
- Norway
- Panama
- Peru
- Portugal
- Romania
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
- Switzerland
- UK
- Ukraine
- Uruguay
- US