GENEVA, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The path to peace begins with full respect for all human rights -- civil, cultural, economic, political and social, and without double standards, the chief of the United Nations (UN) stressed here on Monday.
Addressing the opening of the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the UN is launching a system-wide Agenda for Protection to support states in meeting their obligations to protect and promote human rights.
Under this Agenda, he said the UN, across the full spectrum of its work, will act as one to prevent human rights violations, as well as to identify and respond to them when they take place.
He added that the Summit of the Future scheduled for the coming September will be an opportunity for governments around the world to step up and commit to working for peace and security rooted in human rights, and an Agenda for Peace to be discussed at the Summit will apply a human rights lens to preventing and ending violence in all its forms.
"Our world is becoming less safe by the day. After decades of stable power relations, we are transitioning into an era of multipolarity. This creates new opportunities for leadership and justice on the international stage, but multipolarity without strong multilateral institutions is a recipe for chaos," he noted.
The UN chief also stressed that nothing can justify Hamas's deliberate killing, injuring, torturing and kidnapping of civilians, but at the same time, nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
"I repeat my call for a humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages," he said.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk delivered a vision statement titled "Human Rights: A Path for Solutions," at the opening of the session.
"We are at a precarious moment and cannot take things for granted," said Turk in the statement, citing devastating conflicts, skyrocketing inequalities and new powerful technologies whose risks are yet to be grasped.
"No matter the context, it is through respect for human rights we craft a better future for 'our human family,'" he said.
The messages Turk set out as the backbone of the vision statement include: a strong global constituency for human rights must be supported and given the space to innovate; human rights must be put at the center of prevention and peacebuilding to end cycles of conflict; economies must be transformed with equality and sustainability at the core.
He also said that environmental action must be grounded in human rights; governance must be responsive through full participation and by ending impunity; human ingenuity must be in the service of humanity; youth and children must be included meaningfully in decision-making.
"None of this can be achieved without strengthening our human rights system," he stressed.
The President of the UN General Assembly Dennis Francis said that it is deeply concerning that human rights are under grave and increasing threat around the world.
"Across the globe, the inhumane brutality and suffering must stop. We must not simply stand by as callous observers, lest we be seen as complicit in the expanding web of dehumanization. No! We must do our part," he noted.
He mentioned that in the Gaza Strip, the suffering of innocent civilians has reached an unbearable tipping point, with over 90 percent of the population displaced, teetering on the brink of starvation, and trapped in the depths of an impending though avoidable public health catastrophe.
"In the name of humanity, we the United Nations must vehemently use our commanding platforms to speak up and to speak out -- louder -- in demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and for the opening of corridors to render urgently needed assistance and care to the 1.5 million displaced and unhoused Palestinians," he said.
He urged the donor States to uphold and sustain their contributions to the critical funding necessary for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), to discharge its mandated responsibilities to the Palestinians.
"Even in the midst of the current extraordinary challenges, UNRWA has been and continues to be an indispensable lifeline of support to the Palestinians," he added.
The session will run till April 5. ■
