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GENEVA / HRC OPENING
STORY: GENEVA / HRC OPENING
TRT: 02:02
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 29 FEBRUARY 2016 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
FILE
1. Aerial shot, exterior, Palais des Nations
29 FEBRUARY 2016 GENEVA
2. Wide shot, Human Rights Council Room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“The deliberate starvation of people is unequivocally forbidden as a weapon of warfare. By extension, so are sieges, which deprive civilians of essential goods such as food. And yet over 450 000 people are currently trapped in besieged towns and villages in Syria – and have been, in some cases, for years. Food, medicine and other desperately-needed humanitarian aid is repeatedly obstructed.”
4. Med shot, HRC speaking
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
”Migration is a basic fact of human history, and it requires global sharing of global responsibility. The welcome of millions of displaced people after the Second World War was clearly positive, as well as a principled, move for the States which opened their doors.”
6. Med shot, delegations
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary-General:
“The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a major step forward for human rights. The Agenda reminds us that human rights include the right to development, and that society is only as strong as its weakest member. The integrated, indivisible and universal nature of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals is deeply rooted in universal human rights. The 2030 Agenda’s promise to leave no-one behind means dismantling the structural injustice that holds back women, minorities, indigenous people, and so many millions of others.”
8. Wide shot, Human Rights Council Room
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein opened the 31st session of the Human Rights Council today in Geneva, calling for a better protection of civilians, making a specific reference to the people of Syria.
He said that “the deliberate starvation of people is unequivocally forbidden as a weapon of warfare. By extension, so are sieges, which deprive civilians of essential goods such as food.”
Despite the protection offered to people by international human rights law, these norms are still “being violated shockingly, in multiple conflicts, with complete impunity”, said the High Commissioner.
He added that “it is extremely alarming that so many conflicts, crises and humanitarian emergencies are currently raging, with repeated violations of the norms that protect people’s rights and lives.”
Millions of lives are threatened, the High Commissioner said, and millions of homes are destroyed in countries like Afghanistan, Burundi, the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo; the countries around Lake Chad which have suffered the attacks of Boko Haram, Iraq, Libya, Mali, the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine and Yemen.
In his opening speech, the High Commissioner also referred to the current refugee crisis. He said that “migration is a basic fact of human history, and it requires global sharing of global responsibility. The welcome of millions of displaced people after the Second World War was clearly positive, as well as a principled, move for the States which opened their doors”, whereas today migrants are faced with “hostility, disarray and a rising roar of xenophobia” all over the world.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also addressed the 47-member Council today.
Ban said “The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is a major step forward for human rights," adding that "the Agenda reminds us that human rights include the right to development, and that society is only as strong as its weakest member.
Highlights of the four-week session of the Human Rights Council include interactive the upcoming dialogues with the Commission of Inquiry on Syria and on Burundi, as well as individual sessions on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Eritrea, Iran and Myanmar.
The Council will also hold a high-level panel on the fiftieth anniversary of the International Covenants on Civil and Political Rights and on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
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