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GENEVA / ZEID HUMAN RIGHTS OPENER
STORY: GENEVA / ZEID HUMAN RIGHTS OPENER
TRT: 3:00
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 13 SEPTEMBER 2016, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior, Palais des Nations
2. Tilt down, Human Rights room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“States may shut my Office out – but they will not shut us up; neither will they blind us. If access is refused, we will assume the worst, and yet do our utmost to nonetheless report as accurately as we can on serious allegations. Our remote monitoring is likely to involve witness testimony, credible third-party reports, and use of satellite imagery, among other techniques.”
4. Wide shot, Human Rights room
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Human rights violations will not disappear if a government blocks access to international observers and then invests in a public relations campaign to offset any unwanted publicity. On the contrary, efforts to duck or refuse legitimate scrutiny raise an obvious question: what, precisely, are you hiding from us?”
6. Close up, delegate
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Syria, despite repeated requests, has granted no access to OHCHR (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights) or to the Commission of Inquiry since the crisis began in 2011. This is a State led by a medical doctor and yet is believed to have gassed its own people; has attacked hospitals and bombed civilian neighbourhoods with indiscriminate explosive weapons; and maintains tens of thousands of detainees in inhuman conditions. Words cannot convey how profoundly I condemn this situation.”
8. Close up, Delegate of Syrian Arab Republic
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“For the past two and a half years, Venezuela has refused even to issue a visa to my Regional Representative. Its comprehensive denial of access to my staff is particularly shocking in the light of our acute concerns regarding allegations of repression of opposition voices and civil society groups; arbitrary arrests; excessive use of force against peaceful protests; the erosion of independence of rule of law institutions; and a dramatic decline in enjoyment of economic and social rights, with increasingly widespread hunger and sharply deteriorating health-care.”
10. Close up, delegate of Venezuela
11. Med shot, delegate of Russian Federation
12. Wide shot, delegations
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein decried "an emerging pattern" in which a growing number of states were refusing access to his staff and other UN representatives tasked with investigating allegations of rights violations in their countries.
In his statement today (13 Sept) before the 33rd Session of the UN Human Right Council Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said “states may shut my Office out – but they will not shut us up; neither will they blind us. If access is refused, we will assume the worst, and yet do our utmost to nonetheless report as accurately as we can on serious allegations. Our remote monitoring is likely to involve witness testimony, credible third-party reports, and use of satellite imagery, among other techniques.”
Zeid also said “human rights violations will not disappear if a government blocks access to international observers and then invests in a public relations campaign to offset any unwanted publicity. On the contrary, efforts to duck or refuse legitimate scrutiny raise an obvious question: what, precisely, are you hiding from us?”
The High Commissioner voiced alarm at the situation in war-ravaged Syria, where no UN human rights monitors have been allowed in since the deadly conflict erupted in March 2011. He said “this is a State led by a medical doctor and yet is believed to have gassed its own people; has attacked hospitals and bombed civilian neighbourhoods with indiscriminate explosive weapons; and maintains tens of thousands of detainees in inhuman conditions. Words cannot convey how profoundly I condemn this situation.”
Among the Member States to grant the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) access to countries, Zeid also singled out Venezuela. He said “for the past two and a half years, Venezuela has refused even to issue a visa to my Regional Representative. Its comprehensive denial of access to my staff is particularly shocking in the light of our acute concerns regarding allegations of repression of opposition voices and civil society groups; arbitrary arrests; excessive use of force against peaceful protests; the erosion of independence of rule of law institutions; and a dramatic decline in enjoyment of economic and social rights, with increasingly widespread hunger and sharply deteriorating health-care.”
Belarus, Eritrea and North Korea have also flatly refused all access by UN rights monitors, while Israel has repeatedly refused to cooperate with probes into the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, he said. Also on Turkey the High Commissioner remained concerned by “the repeated and serious allegations of on-going violations of international law as well as human rights concerns, including civilian deaths, extra-judicial killings and massive displacement.”
Zeid stressed that human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent. “If States pick and choose which rights they will uphold, the entire structure is undermined.”
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