UN Human Rights Council

Toespraak | 05-03-2012

Madam President, Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

The atrocious situation in Syria, and the many human rights violations elsewhere, are a sad demonstration of the need for an effective response by the international community to human rights violations. Human rights violations are not only morally repugnant. Sooner or later such violations lead to instability, and misery.

The Netherlands seeks to help ensure that transitions to democracy include respect for the rule of law and human rights. The Human Rights Council is the ideal forum to achieve this. The Netherlands has worked from the start to create a strong and legitimate Human Rights Council, and we want to continue to do so. Now more than ever. For this reason I am pleased to announce that we are a candidate for membership of the Council for the 2015-2017 period. I am of course asking for your support.

We do not ask lightly for this support. As a candidate for Council membership we are making an active contribution to promoting human rights. We aim above all to be effective; and to be effective, we have to be selective. We focus on cases where the lack of freedom, security and prosperity has an impact on the human rights situation. We make an effort wherever and whenever we can make a difference.

Human rights, ladies and gentlemen, are universal. We fight against the death penalty, torture and disappearances, we go after the worst offenders. We champion human rights defenders, freedom of expression, equal rights for all, including women and LGBTs, and last but not least we champion freedom of religion or belief.

Human rights are universal. But that doesn’t mean to say that all countries are identical. What matters is not how citizens’ rights are safeguarded but that they are safeguarded. Communication is needed, not confrontation because respect for human rights cannot be imposed from outside. For our policy to be effective, we should respond to what countries are already doing in the field of human rights. This is what we call in The Netherlands the ‘receptor approach’ for human rights policies.

For people living under authoritarian regimes, the internet has rapidly become a major, if not the main, way to seek and find information – information that can be vital for their safety. Social networks and blogs are crucial as sites for activists to come together and develop and share ideas. It is no accident that the Arab transition began to a great extent online, not offline. Internet freedom has become a key component of freedom of expression.

The Netherlands on its part is working actively to protect internet freedom. We must make sure that we don’t supply the technology which regimes may abuse for on-line censorship or track blogger activity online. This is also our message to universities and companies; we actively seek the dialogue with them and with key partners. We did that during the Freedom Online Conference in The Hague in December last; so far we have a group of around 15 states and we hope it to grow. We‘ll carry on doing it. At the follow-up conference in Nairobi and today. I highly value the initiative taken by my Swedish colleague Carl Bildt to organise a panel discussion on internet freedom this afternoon, and I will be glad to participate.

But, ladies and gentlemen, let’s not forget hard, physical reality. Many brave people are risking their lives in the streets and of the squares of the world to win a better future for their country.

Right from the start, women were in the vanguard of the demonstrations. It is important for women to acquire and retain equal rights. And to quote Secretary of State Clinton we should not address women as victims but as the future leaders in this world. The Netherlands is spending a significant share of our development aid on this. We try to strengthen the role of women in society, economy and the polity: the power structures of the world. And we are implementing Resolution 1325, through a national action plan that promotes women’s role and economic independence in six countries.

Women are of course not the only ones who deserve our support. The Netherlands also defends the rights of minorities. This also encompasses for minorities the freedom of religion and belief: the freedom to choose one’s own faith or belief, to change one’s religion or to live without religion. Sadly, today, it is often Christians in many countries of the world who are under threat. But let me say at the same time that religious intolerance towards people of whatever group, faith or belief, is a threat to stability and security, and the Netherlands is fighting against it. For example by pressing to strengthen the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief.

In tackling infringements of freedom of religion and expression and of human rights in general, we always focus on results. We want to stress this in the Human Rights Council and at the wider UN system as well. And of course in the European Union as well. For example, we have for years been one of the chief supporters of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Ladies and gentlemen,

To conclude, we need to ensure that the international community continues to respond decisively to human rights violations. The Netherlands contributes with a forceful human rights policy: bilaterally, multilaterally in many international forums, and we hope in 2015-2017 as a member of the Human Rights Council. I am asking you today for your support in making this possible.

Thank you.