Source The United Nations
Media www.rajawalisiber.com – The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, told the Security Council that “full compliance with human rights is the best antidote to the inequalities, unaddressed grievances and exclusion which are often at the root of instability and conflict.”
Addressing the Council on Wednesday (3 May), Türk said that “an unwavering human rights lens and strong human rights action – based on norms tried and tested – lead us away from chaos and conflict; advance development; and build trust.”
The High Commissioner also highlighted a couple of peace and security crisis around the globe, including Haiti, noting that the Council acted last year “with an arms embargo and targeted sanctions, among other responses.” But, he added, “more action is urgently needed now.”
“I visited the country in February. It is dangling over an abyss. The State’s lack of capacity to fulfill human rights has completely eroded people’s confidence. The social contract has collapsed. The current lawlessness is a human rights emergency that calls for a robust response,” said Türk.
The High Commissioner also mentioned the situation in Sudan, saying that “trust has been obliterated.”
According to him, “Sudan’s future depends on building trust between the Sudanese people and the institutions that are supposed to serve them.”
Türk added, “Human rights, an end to impunity, and participation by the population – particularly women and young people – must be the driving forces out of the current crisis, so that Sudan can stabilise at last.”
The African Youth Ambassador for Peace for Southern Africa, Cynthia Chigwenya, said that “too many” of young people “no longer believe in institutions”, such as the UN and other international organization.
Chigwenya added, “The onus is on us, those who are in these spaces, to reinvent the space, so that it does become really inviting to young persons, becomes luring, so that they are more encouraged anticipate, and in processes such as these they find a stake in development processes, and in conflict resolution.”
Representing the civil society, the Vice-President and Professor of Security, Leadership and Development at the Kings College in London, Funmi Olonisakin, said that “advancement in artificial intelligence is leading to advancement in capacity or capability of systems and there’s less advancement of human ability to control them.”
According to the expert, “the sheer speed of breakthroughs in science and technology is matched only by the scale of our inability to anticipate the implications on politics and society and on war and peace.”
Olonisakin concluded, “There is therefore an urgent need to develop a sense of things to come, to imagine the future of peace and war, to avoid being overwhelmed by the sheer pace of change.”
Switzerland has the Presidency of the Council during the month of May and was represented in the meeting by the Federal Councillor and Head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland, Ignazio Cassis, who told Council members they “have to admit that we have not sufficiently taken account the frustrations and changes taking place everywhere on our planet.”
Cassis added, “Yes, the multilateral system is under stress, but no, it is not bankrupt! The real failure would be to do nothing. It is time for the Security Council to grasp its responsibilities and to reflect on its potential for action in the face of the increasing number of crises.”