Thank you President,

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of States members of the Group of Friends of Special Procedures.¹

We recognize and fully support the key role played by the Special Procedures, both thematic and country specific, within the human rights system, including through their monitoring, reporting, expert advice and technical cooperation. They contribute to States efforts to advance human rights at the national and international level, including regarding legislative and policy reforms, access to justice, raising awareness of human rights and preventing violations and abuses.

States have built this system to ensure an independent, impartial and objective assessment of the human rights situation in every corner of the world and related recommendations. We must therefore ensure that the mandate holders can carry out their work effectively with the necessary conditions to implement their mandates in an independent, impartial and efficient manner, free from attacks, acts of intimidation or reprisals against those cooperating with them, and undue interference of any kind. In this regard, we commend the efforts of the Coordination Committee, including on continuing to strengthen dialogue and cooperation with States, and on enhancing their working methods. We look forward to participating in the next informal dialogue between the States and the CC.

Special procedures should have the necessary resources to operate. We remain concerned about the limited resources allocated to support the work of the Special Procedures System, and we call on the newly designated High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, to continue the work of his predecessor, including by further strengthening the office support to the mandate holders.

We welcome the calls for more comprehensive use of the human rights monitoring system, including the special procedures, within the “SG Common agenda”. The Human Rights pillar funding crisis has a grave impact on the legitimacy of the UN system as a whole, limiting the capacity of human rights mechanisms to respond to the growing needs and expectations of States, individuals and civil society from all regions. In that regard, we echo the “Common Agenda” call regarding the need to redouble efforts to put the human rights mechanisms on a more sustainable financial footing.

We invite all States to cooperate and support the Special Procedures, as well as to respect their independence, to ensure the effective functioning of the UN human rights system as a whole.

Thank you.

¹Group of Friends of Special Procedures: Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Chile, Costa Rica, Estonia, Fidji, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, Peru, Tunisia, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay.