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STORY: GENEVA/ HUMAN RIGHTS ZEID
TRT: 02:46
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 01 MAY 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND / FILE
FILE - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1. Exterior, Palais des Nations
01 MAY 2017, GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
2. Wide shot, press briefing room
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: “Violations by non-state actors of human rights norms, of international law, do not, and should not serve as grounds for violations thereby by government actors.”
4. Close up, journalist
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“The second trend is this supposition in pursuing this course of action that the demonstration of strengths by the states solves problems and where the law seems to stand in the way the law is to be skirted and the use of, or the creation of, some form of political fog to create confusion at times, even amounting to the depth charging of truth or parts of it, so that a government can pursue a particular line, I think it something we have to watch very carefully.”
6. Med shot, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“In Turkey, by some accounts, up to a staggering 150,000 civil servants have been suspended and just last week 10,000 police officers were reportedly suspended, a thousand of whom were detained. Over the weekend another 4,000 public officials were reportedly sacked, including 1,000 justice ministry staff. With such a large number it is highly unlikely that the suspensions and detentions will have met due process standards. Yes, the terror attacks need to be tackled, but not at the expense of human rights and I am very concerned about the renewed state of emergency which was undertaken in mid-April and the climate of fear in the country”.
8. Wide shot, journalists
9. SOUNDBITE (English) SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Human rights violations have also resulted in famines in Yemen and South Sudan and human rights deficits have exacerbated the impact of droughts in other places like Kenya, Somalia and Northern Nigeria”.
10. Med shot, journalists
11. SOUNDBITE (English) SOUNDBITE (English) Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Human rights defenders continue to be, and this is UN international Human Rights defenders and then also those in their own countries as well as journalists and other members of civil society, continue to remain at risk”.
12. Close up, laptop
13. Med shot, journalists
A number of governments around the world are responding to violence by themselves violating international human rights standards, the UN Human Rights Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said today (01 May) at a press conference in Geneva, part of a worrying trend of growing disregard for international law.
The High Commissioner said “violations by non-state actors of human rights norms, of international law, do not and should not serve as grounds for violations thereby by government actors.”
Zeid specifically mentioned the excessive use of states of emergency, the rise in extra-judicial killings and arbitrary arrest, the denial of freedom of expression and the destruction of civil society, all of which have been documented in a number of different countries.
A related trend identified by Zeid is the assumption that "demonstration of strength by the states solves problems." This assumption, he said, leads some governments to believe that "where the law seems to stand in the way, the law is to be skirted."
He added that such violations by governments can be part of a deliberate "political fog" intended "to create confusion, at times even amounting to the depth-charging of truth, or parts of it, so that a government can pursue a particular line," and said that this trend was something to be watched very carefully by defenders of human rights.
The current crackdown in Turkey came in for specific criticism by the UN's top human rights official.
Zaid said that “by some accounts, up to a staggering 150,000 civil servants have been suspended and just last week 10,000 police officers were reportedly suspended, a thousand of whom were detained.”
Over the weekend, he added, “another 4,000 public officials were reportedly sacked, including 1,000 justice ministry staff. With such a large number it is highly unlikely that the suspensions and detentions will have met due process standards."
"Yes, the terror attacks need to be tackled” Zeid said about Turkey, “but not at the expense of human rights and I am very concerned about the renewed state of emergency which was undertaken in mid-April and the climate of fear in the country.”
Human rights violations are also responsible for disastrous humanitarian conditions, including famine, according to Zeid. He said “human rights violations have also resulted in famines in Yemen and South Sudan, and human rights deficits have exacerbated the impact of droughts in other places like Kenya, Somalia and Northern Nigeria.”
With an eye towards World Press Freedom Day on the 3rd of May, the High Commissioner expressed his concern about the mounting pressures faced by journalists, as well as other human rights defenders in countries such as Colombia, China, Mexico, Turkey and Thailand.
