Thank you Mr President

I am speaking on behalf of the contact group on Council membership.

We are grateful for today’s commemorative event and thank the speakers for their comments.

The Council is only as good as its members and as GA resolution 60/251 makes clear, all members elected to the Council are required to uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights and to fully cooperate with the Council.

The purpose of the contact group is to make Council membership more inclusive and diverse by encouraging States with a demonstrable commitment to human rights and democracy to strengthen their engagement with the Council and consider standing for election. Our particular focus is on small states.

As we reflect on the Council’s achievements over 50 sessions, we think we need to keep the issue of future membership clearly in mind.  In 2017, 95 states had never been members. Now that number is down to around 60. But there is still some way to go, and the majority of states who have yet to become members are LDCs and SIDS.  

One of the Council’s stand out successes has been the creation and work of the LDCs /SIDS trust fund. We would like to pay tribute to its achievements, and express our ongoing support for its work.

We would like to ask the panel, what more can be done to support LDCs and SIDS to engage with the Council’s work and to seek Council membership.

Thank you