The opening of the Human Rights Council in Geneva

On the 3^rd of March the Human Rights Council in Geneva opened its 25^th regular Session, scheduled to end on the 28^th of March. Room XX of the Palais des Nations was crowded with ambassadors, delegations, NGOs, Civil Society and numerous Press Officers for the opening four-day High-level Segment during which over 90 ministers and other senior dignitaries will address the 47-member Council on global human rights matters.

Gabonese Baudelaire Ndong Ella, President of the HRC, was the first speaker, followed by John W. Ashe, President of the UN General Assembly, the Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, who is almost at the end of her mandate. Swiss Confederation President Didier Burkhalter welcomed the delegations on behalf of the host Country: “As the people of United Nations, it is our duty and responsibility to be spokesmen of Human Rights”, he said.

Each speaker expressed his belief that this session of the HRC would be particularly auspicious.

In particular, the UN Secretary General highlighted the situations in Syria, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, emphasizing the fundamental role played by the International Community. “Streets, airwaves, entire countries are buzzing with demands for economic, social and political justice,” Navi Pillay stated in her opening address to the Council, highlighting the growing number of people confidently laying claim to their rights.

Notably absent was Foreign Minister of France Laurent Fabius, whose intervention was scheduled on Monday.  Moncef Marzouki, president of Tunisia, delivered a copy of the new Tunisian Constitution, approved in last January, to Ban Ki-Moon, who had already defined it “a possible model for other people aspiring reforms”.

Russian Federation Foreign Minister Sergej Lavrov’s intervention was heavily anticipated; he gave the Kremlin’s perspective on the Ukrainian issue, reaffirming the Russian troops right to intervene in Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula to protect ethnic Russians “from attacks by ultranationalists”.

On Monday afternoon, a meeting between Lavrov and the Secretary General took place on the margins of the opening session of the UN Human Rights Council, while European Foreign Affairs Ministers were meeting in Brussels.

“We discussed the creation of a contact group which could support de-escalation in Ukraine”, stated OSCE Chairperson-in-Office. Burkhalter added that they also discussed other ideas such as the possibility to monitor the situation in Ukraine, which could help to re-establish trust in the long term by focusing on minorities and human rights. In this regard, the statement from Dimitris Kourkoulas, Greek Foreign Affairs Minister speaking on behalf of Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy for the European Union, was significant: “The EU commends the measured response demonstrated so far by the Ukrainian government to these developments and extends its full support to all efforts towards political and social stabilisation through reforms, inclusiveness at all levels of governance, and the respect of the rights of persons belonging to national minorities in line with European standards”.

However, the heated situation in Venezuelan was not addressed during the discussion. Elias Jaua Milano, Foreign Affairs Minister for Venezuela, summarised the violence that caused several deaths in February during the clashes between protesters and government security forces. The Minister described Venezuelan people as free from illiteracy and hunger, in a Country where free education is provided and democratic elections process took place. Unfortunately, he failed to mention the high rate of crime, the worsening economic framework and the deterioration of independent media outlets.

Jaua Milano criticized the groups of demonstrators who attacked Venezuela and its vocation to peace, stating that because of the violent character of the protests, the government was forced to react using force, to defend the Country against this “aggression to democracy”.

Sadly, this is a frequent excuse: violence to appease violence.

We need to point out that even in Venezuela, as in Europe and in the Arab Spring case, young people are, as always, in the frontline to protest and fight for their rights.

In this regard, welcoming the testimonies from the FMA Sisters on the field, IIMA and VIDES International would like to use this occasion to condemn all episodes of violence, particularly those in Venezuela and Ukraine. We would like to show our support and affinity with the people of these Countries who deserve freedom and guaranteed social rights.

Non-violent protest should be an instrument for promoting and defending the fundamental freedoms of every person on Earth.