Joint Statement on Human Rights Day: Security Council Media Stakeout by 56 Member States

Human Rights Day and Universal Declaration

• 🌍 On International Human Rights Day, 56 countries delivered a joint statement emphasizing the inalienable and universal human rights affirmed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights nearly 80 years ago.
• 💡 The statement highlights that disregard for and abuse of human rights often cause prolonged conflicts and can be a threat to peace and security.

Accountability and Sustainable Peace

• ⚖️ Accountability for gross human rights violations is deemed essential for justice, societal healing, and creating conditions for sustainable peace.
• 🚫 Impunity is identified not only as a failure of justice but also as a direct driver of conflicts, instability, and insecurity.
• 🛠️ Addressing alleged human rights violations requires credible investigations, prosecutions, and holding perpetrators accountable.

Situation in Afghanistan

• 🇦🇫 The statement specifically addresses the dire human rights situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban's discriminatory policies have led to severe inequalities and pervasive discrimination.
• 🚫 The Taliban's systematic violations, particularly against women and girls, are condemned, including severe restrictions on their education, employment, and freedom of movement.
• 🎤 The repression of Afghan journalists, civil society, targeting of minorities, public executions, and arbitrary arrests are also highlighted as grave abuses committed with impunity.

Human Rights as a Prerequisite for Peace

• 🕊️ A call is reiterated for the Taliban to immediately cease and reverse human rights abuses, especially restrictions on women and girls, and to allow monitoring mechanisms to operate freely.
• 📌 Human rights are asserted not as an adjunct to peace and security, but as a fundamental prerequisite.
• ⚠️ The Security Council must confront human rights violations and abuses, which frequently fuel cycles of violence, to effectively address instability.