Pretoria - The United Nations Human Rights Council (HRC) needs to give priority to all human rights by ensuring a balance between civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development.
This is because socio-economic rights are the core business the HRC, especially with respect to women, girls and the youth, says International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.
Speaking at the high-level segment of the 28th session of the HRC underway in Geneva, Switzerland, the Minister said it was critical that the council is seen as an independent mechanism for the entrenchment of a human rights culture throughout the world.
For this to happen, she said the impartiality of the council was paramount.
“In serving as an agency for the promotion and protection of human rights globally, the HRC must not be compromised. In conducting itself, the HRC must at all times show balance in accordance with the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 60/251.
“In discharging its mandate, the council should remain a credible arbiter and deal with all global human rights concerns in a balanced manner,” Minister Nkoana-Mashabane told the gathering of more than 80 dignitaries from member states and observers and senior officials of international organisations.
The high-level session meets against the background of the post-2015 Development Agenda as well as South Africa’s chairing of the Group of 77 (G77) plus China, which presents an opportunity for SA and developing countries to advocate for issues of development and social integration.
In this light, the Minister said the world now needs to embark on the intergovernmental process of defining a new post-2015 Development Agenda.
“We should all be mindful that investment in the unfinished work of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) must continue. We must build on the successes of the MDGs, keeping in mind the Millennium Declaration ensuring that we once and for all eradicate poverty, create decent jobs and address income inequalities,” she said.
Minister Nkoana-Mashabane said the world needs to vigorously tackle the multiple and diverse challenges that women continue to face.
Africa, she said, firmly believes that there is a direct link between the emancipation and empowerment of women and poverty eradication.
As a nation, she told the council, South Africa is committed to building a society that is diverse.
“The birth of a nation is never an easy task. We began the journey by removing all forms of legislative and institutionalised discrimination on the basis of race, gender, religion, culture and sexual orientation,” she said.
The Minister also used the platform to reaffirm South Africa’s unwavering support for the just cause of the Palestinian people and further pledged Pretoria’s solidarity with them and called for resolute action.
“We reiterate our principled and longstanding support for their right to self-determination and the achievement of their legitimate national aspirations. We continue to be appalled by the indifference of certain powers to the carnage visited on the People of Palestine, with women and children massacred before us.” - SAnews.gov.za
