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I have the honour to make this statement in the name of the European Union.
The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, and the EFTA country Liechtenstein, member of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.
The European Union welcomes the first biennial Strategic Management Plan of the OHCHR which lays down how the Office intends to fulfil its mandate and operationalise its vision as outlined in the Plan of Action. We commend the High Commissioner for the elaboration of this comprehensive and coherent strategic plan.
As reiterated on many occasions, the EU fully supports the strengthening of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights so it can effectively implement its mandate to promote and protect all human rights for all people and prevent the occurrence or continuation of human rights abuses throughout the world. We truly share the High Commissioner’s views on an integrated concept of collective security and strongly support the notion that development, security and human rights are interdependent and mutually reinforcing.
The EU welcomes the Strategic Plan’s aim of increasing constructive country engagement and supports the objective of enhancing technical assistance to help states in translating human rights norms into practice on the ground. The strengthened commitment to Action 2 proves already to be a decisive factor in obtaining these tangible results and will also move forward the mainstreaming of human rights throughout the UN system.
The EU believes that the reinforcement of your advocacy role, as well as OHCHR’s communication capacity, will be key elements for the success of the strategy contained in this plan.
The EU also welcomes the High Commissioner’s plan to strengthen her Office’s support to the Treaty Monitoring Bodies including, in the immediate term, through raising awareness of and assistance for the implementation of treaty body recommendations at the national level.
We would also like to endorse your views on special procedures, and reiterate the importance we attach to this mechanism, as one of the greatest achievements of the Commission on Human Rights. The EU attaches great importance to the adequate staffing to support the work of treaty bodies and special procedures. We trust that, in line with the High Commissioner’s Plan of Action, an increase in resources to support these mandates will be a central part of the Office’s bid in the next biennium.
The EU has been a strong proponent of the need for a substantial increase in funding for OHCHR to strengthen the Office, particularly in the areas of technical assistance and capacity building. We therefore welcomed the increase in the regular budget funds for the Office, as proclaimed in the final outcome document of the World Summit in September.
EU Member States are also aware of the Office’s continuing need for voluntary contributions, to enable the Office to fulfil its newly reviewed and ambitious set of goals. Furthermore, we recognize the importance of providing the Office with unearmarked and predictable voluntary funding, in order to allow the fulfilment of its mandate in an efficient, fully independent and timely manner, through appropriate planning. We particularly welcome the efforts to bring the two sides of the budget together in this one document for increased clarity and transparency.
The Strategic Management Plan reflects the call for progress in the implementation of human rights, which was one of the central messages conveyed at the World Summit last year. We believe that this results-based management tool provides a sound framework for advancing the Office’s mandate, both independently and – where possible and appropriate – with and through the wider United Nations system. Given the ever-changing dynamics of human rights concerns we perceive this strategic-management process as a continuing project aimed at identifying the right priorities and opportunities for improvement. The EU expresses its continuing commitment to fully support the Office in implementing these priorities as a means to significantly advance the realisation of all human rights for all.
* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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