Organization: Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada
Item 2: General debate
Date: 3 March 2025
Speaker: Catherine Morris
Oral Statement to the 58th Session of the UN Human Rights Council from Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) NGO in special consultative status
Mr. President,
This session of the Council occurs amid ongoing wars and threats of aggression, atrocity crimes, environmental catastrophes, and a host of human rights violations.
It is unacceptable that some States subordinate international human rights law to their own interests or that of their allies. Some are actively undermining international institutions, including UN bodies and the International Criminal Court.
The UN Charter obligates all States to promote “universal respect for, and observance of, human rights and fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.” The Universal Declaration of Human Rights insists that “human rights should be protected by the rule of law.”
Yet, too many States violate these principles, engaging in vilification, threats, judicial harassment, arbitrary detention, or attacks against judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and human rights defenders who uphold the rule of law.
We remind Council members that GA Resolution 60/251 requires them to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights…”
Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada calls on all members of this Council to ensure effective, timely measures to uphold the rule of law and to curtail violations. We call on all States to defend international human rights and humanitarian law and to ensure adequate funding to end the Council’s liquidity crisis and enable fulfilment of its mandates.
Thank you.
