UN General Assembly - Third Committee: EU EoV draft resolution L.24 Report of the Human Rights Council

Chair,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its Member States. 

Let me start by underlining our strong support for the important work of the Human Rights Council and appreciation for its annual report. 

However, we maintain our longstanding position that this annual resolution is both procedurally unnecessary and incorrect, disregarding what was established in the Review of Human Rights Council. 

This resolution creates the false impression that the Third Committee has power to overrule decisions made by the HRC, which is not the case. The HRC is a subsidiary organ of the General Assembly, and is independent from the Third Committee. We are disappointed that the resolution before us continues to disregard this basic fact. 

This is also one of the reasons why EU Member States supported the amendment submitted by Mexico, as we believe the new elements introduced this year exceeded the thematic and procedural scope of the resolution and would have been an undue attempt for the Third Committee to seek to impose, steer or limit the work of the Human Rights Council – an independent UN body – which would set a dangerous precedence for the future. 

We thank the African Group for the oral revision introduced to the text, which we believe is a  reasonable and acceptable way forward.

We are fully committed to engage actively and constructively in the follow up of the 3C working methods resolution, including on the proposed elements for a joint roadmap that has been shared by the bureau, as well as other elements to address the growing workload of the Committee – also taking into account the the ongoing work in Geneva to streamline and rationalize the work of the Human Rights Council, led by Spain and Thailand, as well as the UN80 initative.

Addressing this redundancy of adopting this resolution in 3C – as well as duplicating the general debate on the Human Rights Council report that takes place in the GA – would be an efficient, clear and logical way to address the concerns with the growing workload of the Third Committee.

We hope that UN Member States will consider this unnecessary and unjustified duplication of work within the context of the ongoing negotiations on a resolution on the working methods of the Third Committee, and before a resolution under this agenda item is proposed in the future. 

In line with our principled position that this resolution is procedurally unnecessary and incorrect, EU Member States will still abstain in the vote on this resolution.

Thank you, Chair.