Alarm over politicization of human rights

GENEVA — Senior officials from across the globe have expressed concern over human rights issues at the ongoing 52nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council. The officials voiced their opposition to the "politicization, weaponization and instrumentalization of human rights issues".

During the Council, which will last until April 4, senior officials from many countries called for equal attention to be given to all human rights. The right to survival and the right to development are basic human rights, they emphasized, calling for international dialogue and cooperation on these issues to be reinforced.

Many stressed the importance of respecting every country's autonomy to choose their own path of human rights development.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told the Council that no state or group of states should entitle themselves to claim exclusive ownership of human rights, nor should any state force another to submit to its own interpretation of human rights.

It is vital to understand and respect the particularities of each country, and to seek common ground rather than interfering or politicizing issues, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov criticized "some states" for trying to take advantage of the current situation.

These countries are exerting pressure on others and trying to impose their view of human rights across the world, Ryabkov said. In doing so, they are brushing aside cultural, religious and other differences, and attempting to replace the international norms of human rights law.

Retno L.P. Marsudi, Indonesia's foreign minister, said the Council should avoid politicization of human rights as well as an "us versus them" mentality, because finger-pointing and double standards will only divide the Council.

Attempts to convert the Council into a "court" to prosecute countries that refuse to bow down to the aims of the powerful will only undermine the credibility of this body, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Eduardo Rodriguez Parrilla said.

Yury Ambrazevich, deputy foreign minister of Belarus, said imposing a so-called view of human rights by any country or a group on the international community is just a cause of conflict.

Fayssal Mekdad, Syrian minister for foreign affairs and expatriates, said the devastation of the recent earthquake did not awaken the conscience of some countries. These countries continue to impose their unilateral sanction policies based on politicization and double standards, he said, and "turned a blind eye to the cries for help of the victims under the rubble".

Hina Rabbani Khar, minister of state for foreign affairs of Pakistan, emphasized that issues of climate change, underdevelopment, global finance and inequality need to be viewed from a human rights perspective.

Many people around the world are living without hope, purpose or dignity, with widening poverty gaps, rising unemployment and inequality, Ghana's Attorney General and Minister for Justice Godfred Yeboah Dame said.

Xinhua