Australia in Switzerland
Bern and Geneva
Switzerland, Liechtenstein

Statement 138

Human Rights Council - 15th Regular Session

Statement by Ambassador Jānis Mažeiks
Permanent Representative of the Republic of Latvia to the United Nations in Geneva
September 21, 2010

Promotion of Universality of the Standing Invitations to all Special Procedures
Agenda item 5
Human Rights bodies and mechanisms

Mr President,

I have the honour to address the Council on behalf of Albania, Australia, Austria, Armenia, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay.

Like one year ago, our countries would like to address the issue of promoting cooperation with the special procedures of the Human Rights Council through the universalization of standing invitation.

Our countries represent different regions and traditions. We are united by the decision to extend standing invitations to all special procedures. We believe that this constitutes a simple and clear way to show our readiness and willingness to cooperate with the Council. It is also a concrete contribution to the strengthening of the special procedures system. We encourage other countries to extend a standing invitation while preserving the voluntary nature of this commitment. At the same time it is important to stress that issuing a standing invitation should result in genuine cooperation with the special procedures.

Progress has been made in the course of the past year. The number of countries that have extended standing invitations has continued to grow. We welcome the recent decisions of Albania, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, El Salvador, Georgia, Honduras and Moldova to extend standing invitations to all special procedures of the Human Rights Council bringing the total number of countries to 72, thus strengthening the cross-regional nature of this initiative.

We encourage all states to fully cooperate with the special procedures of the Human Rights Council. While noting some improvements in the practical cooperation with the special procedures that led to 73 country visits in 2009, we also note that the number of visits for this year remains low. Only 43 country visits have taken place in 2010 and dates for very few forthcoming visits have been set so far. Worryingly, more than three hundred requests for visits by special procedures mandate holders are still pending.

UPR process has proved to be an important avenue for promoting standing invitations as well as visits by specific rapporteurs. We welcome the fact that several countries have issued standing invitation in the course of their UPR review. We hope that other countries will follow their commendable example. The issue of standing invitations will continue to be raised in the future UPR sessions.

We continue to encourage the countries running for election to the Council to extend standing invitations. We also call upon the current members of the Council that have not extended standing invitations to do so as a matter of leadership and demonstration of their support for the Council and these mechanisms.

We appreciate that the High Commissioner and OHCHR has continued to give visibility to the standing invitations. We invite the Office to disseminate comprehensive information on cooperation with special procedures among those countries that have not yet extended standing invitation, including best practices of cooperation with special procedures.

We remain committed to the principle of improved cooperation with the special procedures. We invite all States to continue to cooperate with and assist the special procedure mandate holders in the performance of their tasks.

Thank you Mr President.