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GENEVA / HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
STORY: GENEVA / HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL
TRT: 3.35
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 8 SEPTEMBER 2014, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Med shot, exterior of Palais des Nations
2. Med shot, arrival of High Commissioner Zeid and handshakes
3. Wide shot, dais
4. SOUNDBITE (English), Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“From a human rights perspective, it is clear that the immediate and urgent priority of the international community should be to halt the increasingly conjoined conflicts in Iraq and Syria. In particular, dedicated efforts are urgently needed to protect religious and ethnic groups, children – who are at risk of forcible recruitment and sexual violence – and women, who have been the targets of severe restrictions.”
5. Wide shot, meeting room
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“The second step, as my predecessor consistently stressed, must be to ensure accountability for gross violations of human rights and other international crimes. Impunity can only lead to further conflict and abuses, as revenge festers and the wrong lessons are learned.
7. Cutaway, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Current and future generations of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have a right to live normal lives in dignity: without conflict, without a blockade, indeed without the wide range of daily human rights infringements that are generated by military occupation, illegal settlements, excessive use of force, home demolitions, and the Wall that continues to be constructed across the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The seven-year blockade must end, and there must be effective accountability for transgressions committed by all parties. On this point, I note that Israelis have a right to live free and secure from indiscriminate rocket fire.”
9. Wide shot, meeting room
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“The SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) need to aim not only for freedom from want – including the rights to health, education, decent work, food, water and sanitation – but equally, freedom from fear; and here I would highlight rights relating to access to justice, personal security and an equal voice and right to participate in public affairs. Perhaps no recent phenomenon could illustrate the indivisibility and interrelatedness of human rights better than the Ebola outbreak that is currently affecting several West African countries. The lack of adequate infrastructure for a life of dignity – including hospitals and sanitation – and conditions leading to distrust and civil disengagement with authorities, have compounded the effects of this terrible epidemic, placing human lives in grave danger as well as undermining peace and security, and development.”
11. Tilt down, meeting room
In his first address to the Human Rights Council, the new United Nations Human Rights Chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said that stopping “the increasingly conjoined conflicts in Iraq and Syria” should be the highest priority of the international community.
He said that “dedicated efforts are urgently needed” to protect religious and ethnic groups as well as children, who are “at risk of forcible recruitment and sexual violence.”
Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein took over the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights from Navi Pillay at the beginning of September.
Speaking of the Israel/Palestine conflict, the High Commissioner reiterated numerous previous calls by his predecessor Navi Pillay for Israel’s economic blockade of Gaza to be lifted.
Zeid said that “current and future generations of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have a right to live normal lives in dignity.”
High Commissioner Zeid said the human rights agenda must form an integral part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which will replace the Millenium Development Goals.
He said that the SDGs need to aim not only for freedom from want, including the rights to health, education, decent work, food, water and sanitation, but also freedom from fear.
Zeid pointed out the ongoing Ebola outbreak as an example where human rights have been disregarded, making a terrible situation even worse.
The current session of the Human Rights Council runs until 26th September 2014.
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