Speakers in Fifth Committee at Odds over Secretary-General’s Proposal for Extra Resources to Implement Human Rights Council Resolutions, Decisions Next Year
Adequate and predictable financing for mandates arising from resolutions and decisions adopted by the Council — the main UN intergovernmental body dealing with human rights — is vital to strengthen this pillar and promote and protect fundamental freedoms, said Costa Rica’s representative, also speaking for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
“On the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, our countries reaffirm that the Organization’s pillars deserve equal treatment and their proper funding is the responsibility of all States,” he said, backing the proposed funds. “The Fifth Committee should not be used as a tool to undermine validly established mandates.”
The speaker for the Russian Federation countered that Council resolutions 52/32 and 54/23 on the human rights situations in Ukraine and his country continue to show the absence of a desire by Western countries to constructively deliberate along generally accepted principles and norms of international law. These and other politicized country texts advance the interests of individual countries, he said, and rejected their financing from the UN regular budget.
Ethiopia’s delegate, who spoke for the African Group, said Sudan has been fully working with the UN human rights system, and its opposition to the establishment of a fact-finding mission to the country — as provided in Council resolution S-36/1 — should have been given due consideration. “The continued practice of adopting country-specific mechanisms in the face of justified opposition of the country concerned and lack of majority support in the HRC [Human Rights Council] is a negative sign to the impartiality as well as effectiveness of the human rights system,” he said. Creating yet another mechanism may impact the enforceability of previous mechanisms and be an ineffective use of scarce resources.
In the day’s business, Johannes Huisman, Director of the Programme Planning and Budget Division of the Office of Programme Planning, Finance and Budget in the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, presented the Secretary-General’s report “Revised estimates resulting from resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council at its fifty-second, fifty-third and fifty-fourth regular sessions, and at its thirty-sixth special session, in 2023”. The report shows a $49.73 million (net of staff assessment) estimated additional resource requirements for 2024, including related posts, seeking the Committee’s approval.
Abdallah Bachar Bong, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), presented that body’s eponymous report.
Opening Remarks
OSAMA MAHMOUD ABDELKHALEK MAHMOUD (Egypt), Chair of the Fifth Committee, urged everyone — colleagues and coordinators — to work around the clock, late at night and early in the morning, and to “start that sleepless marathon now”, as the Organization and the Committee Bureau look up to the Committee to facilitate the fluency of all the issues. He urged for completion of the organ’s work by midnight of 15 December, as any assumption that the Chair will extend sitting is baseless. Whatever has been arrived at by that time will be transmitted to the President of the General Assembly and the wider membership. “If we have too many bottlenecks and deficiencies in the system and people are not doing the right thing at the right time, then you revisit the system; you don’t put pressure on the elements,” he said, appealing for heightened collaboration because this is not rocket science or redesigning the universe, but simply looking after budgetary and financial matters.
Revised 2024 Estimates Due to Human Rights Council Resolutions and Decisions
JOHANNES HUISMAN, Director of the Programme Planning and Budget Division of the Office of Programme Planning, Finance and Budget in the Department of Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, presented the Secretary-General’s report “Revised estimates resulting from resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council at its fifty-second, fifty-third and fifty-fourth regular sessions, and at its thirty-sixth special session, in 2023” (document A/78/574). This report requests the approval of additional appropriations for 2024, including related posts, for which no provisions have been made in the proposed 2024 programme budget. It provides details of estimated additional resource requirements for 2024 amounting to $49.73 million (net of staff assessment). During its sessions in 2023, the Council adopted 85 resolutions with resource requirements, of which 73 resolutions give rise to additional resource requirements for the proposed 2024 programme budget. The requirements include 77 new posts, he said. The approach taken to prepare the report is in accordance with the Assembly’s decision, pursuant to resolution 77/262, to not consolidate any requirements related to mandates that are of a renewable nature in the proposed programme budget.
ABDALLAH BACHAR BONG, Chair of the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ), introducing the Advisory Committee’s related reports (A/78/7/Add.39), noted the Secretary-General’s proposal to establish 77 posts (including four temporary posts) in 2024, under section 24, Human rights. The ACABQ recommends creating 67 posts except for six posts under resolution 54/22 and four posts under resolution 54/33. It also recommends that five posts (under resolution 52/14) be established as temporary posts with one P-3 post established at the P-2 level (resolution 54/18). On the proposal to create 297 General Temporary Assistance positions, including 177 full-time positions, in 2024, he said: “The Committee is of the view that the absence of consolidated information on the 297 positions under dozens of resolutions in the report does not facilitate the consideration of the proposed requirements by the Committee and General Assembly.” He trusted that a consolidated annex on the proposed posts and General Temporary Assistance positions, with detailed information, will be included in future Secretary-General reports on the revised estimates from the Human Rights Council.
As for the short-term new General Temporary Assistance position proposed for 2023, he said the ACABQ is not convinced that it should be converted to a post for 2024 and recommends against the proposed conversion at this stage, and trusts that a clear criterion for proposing the conversion will be provided in the next programme budget submission. The Assembly should ask the Secretary-General to review, within existing resources, the substantive posts, and positions, including General Temporary Assistance positions in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), with a view to eliminating any duplication of functions and resource requests and ensuring a cost-effective implementation of mandates.
While Assembly resolution 77/263 endorsed the ACABQ recommendation for the establishment of a core capacity for administrative and other support functions, and a proposal to that end was included in section 24 of the 2024 proposed programme budget, he regretted it was not fully implemented as the administrative-related new posts were only intended for the investigative bodies. The Assembly should ask the Secretary-General to conduct a review of the core capacity for administrative support covering all OHCHR mandates, taking into account its existing capacity, as the revised estimates should clearly indicate the organizational units that implement the mandated activities, with information on the existing capacity. Any new mandate arising from a resolution would require the establishment of a new organizational unit, and as such should be clearly set out in the reports for the consideration of the General Assembly, he noted.
Acknowledging that the inclusion of budget performance reporting by mandate is a Secretariat-wide matter and would require potential additional capacities, the Advisory Committee sees merit in expanding the scope of the current budget performance reporting by adding mandate performance to improve the quality and transparency of budget performance. The ACABQ therefore recommends that the Assembly request the Secretary-General to provide information on the feasibility and options for the Organization to explore such an additional budget-tracking and performance-reporting feature in the Secretary-General report on progress on the functioning and development of the Umoja system.
CARLOS MANUEL VIDECHE GUEVARA (Costa Rica), also speaking for Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay, said the countries are strongly committed to multilateralism, built on a foundation of dialogue, cooperation and the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Adequate and predictable financing for mandates arising from resolutions and decisions adopted by the Human Rights Council — as the principal intergovernmental body of the United Nations in this matter — is a cardinal priority for these delegations, in the context of the Fifth Committee’s work, he said. He noted that in 2023, the Council held three regular sessions and one special session, during which 85 resolutions were adopted and 73 texts created resource needs with budgetary consequences. The resources estimated for 2024 total $68.52 million, of which $18.79 million were included in the 2024 programme budget project and $49.73 million make up additional needs.
“On the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, our countries reaffirm that the Organization’s pillars deserve equal treatment and their proper funding is the responsibility of all States,” he said. Yet the ordinary budget allocated for the protection of human rights is still limited. Allocating resources, according to needs, is a fundamental requirement to strengthen this pillar and ensure a better protection system. The delegations support the approval of the additional resources in order to effectively and fully comply with the Council’s 2023 mandates, he said, adding: “The Fifth Committee should not be used as a tool to undermine validly established mandates.”
LEMLEM FISEHA MINALE (Ethiopia), speaking for the African Group, underscored the Group’s conviction to the principles of independence, objectivity, and non-selectivity, as well as the elimination of double standards and politicization enshrined under resolution 60/251 (2006) establishing the Human Rights Council. The primary responsibility to ensure the protection of human rights rests with the country concerned. “Accordingly, international cooperation on human rights only has a complementary role and it has to be done in good faith with the full agreement of and cooperation with the country concerned,” she said. The Group shares the concern over Sudan’s security situation and calls for solidarity and enhanced international cooperation in that regard, she said. Regarding resolution S-36/1 (2023) on the fact-finding mission in that country, she recalled that the Council had, before this decision, pronounced itself and established three separate mechanisms: resolution S-36/1; resolution 54/2, under the title “Responding to the human rights and humanitarian crisis caused by the ongoing armed conflict in the Sudan”; and technical assistance for Sudan in the field of human rights.
She noted that Sudan has been fully working with the UN Human rights system, including utilizing the technical assistance of OHCHR. Therefore, the Group believes that the country’s opposition to the establishment of a fact-finding mission should have been given due consideration. “The continued practice of adopting country-specific mechanisms in the face of justified opposition of the country concerned and lack of majority support in the HRC [Human Rights Council] is a negative sign to the impartiality as well as effectiveness of the human rights system,” she stressed, noting that the Group looks forward to understanding the working methods and considerations of the Council that culminates and leads to initiatives for country-specific resolutions concentrated in one region. Establishing yet another mechanism may impact on the enforceability of the previously established mechanisms and may not be an effective use of the scarce resource, she cautioned.
KELLI DEGREGORY (Bahamas) noted the Human Rights Council’s support for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Regional Office of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights with 47 Member States’ unanimous adoption of resolution 53/L.25/Rev.1 in October 2023. This Regional Office will help strengthen connections between the human rights mandate, development priorities and culture. It will also intersect with the Multi-Country Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework and development agenda tools, such as the Bridgetown Initiative and the Multi-Dimensional Vulnerability Index. Her delegation endorses the Advisory Committee’s report and recognizes the value the Regional Office will bring through its physical infrastructure, institutional knowledge and expertise. She also supported the recommendation for staff, which accommodates the need for succession planning. “The protection of human rights for all in the Bahamas is an ongoing commitment,” she said, adding that cooperation with the Regional Office will help mainstream human rights into policies and laws and foster partnerships between Government, civil society and the UN human rights framework.
VADIM N. LAPUTIN (Russian Federation) said since his country’s withdrawal from the Human Rights Council, Western countries — together with representatives of the Kyiv regime — continue to impose on other countries a one-sided and biased picture of the world, in which the Russian Federation is the main and only culprit of events that were in fact caused exclusively by criminal actions of the Kyiv regime at the West’s instigation. The Council’s adoption of resolutions 52/32 and 54/23 on the situation of human rights in Ukraine and the Russian Federation respectively continues to prove the lack of intentions on the part of Western countries for constructive dialogue based on generally accepted principles and norms of international law. His country does not recognize the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine and refuses any cooperation with it. The same goes for the mandate extension of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Russian Federation, an initiative which has nothing to do with the real situation in the field of human rights protection in his country.
He opposed the imposition of a “rules-based order” on his country and others, as well as the adoption of politicized country resolutions in favour of the political interests of certain individual countries. The Russian Federation also rejects financing of these resolutions from the UN regular budget.
BADRELDEEN BAKHIT MUSA BAKHIT (Sudan) said that as a result of a political campaign launched by certain States, Human Rights Council decision 36/1 was adopted. It lacks objectivity and places on an equal footing Sudan’s regular forces with the Rapid Support Forces. It aims to undermine the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Sudan as this militia is made up of mercenaries, who benefit from external support. The militia is carrying out ethnic cleansing in Darfur, crimes against civilians and systematic looting in Khartoum. This resolution was adopted as Sudanese authorities assume their Constitutional authority and protect their own citizens and end the invasion. The protection and promotion of human rights in Sudan will remain the main a goal of the Sudanese Government. Sudan cooperates with existing human rights mechanisms, he said, stressing that no one can underestimate his Government’s efforts on human rights. His delegation rejected this resolution because it is not impartial. Mechanisms created by the Human Rights Council without consent of the host country will fail.
Mr. MAHMOUD, Fifth Committee Chair, again urged delegates to close the ranks and seize every opportunity and talk to each other efficiently. He urged them to finish the Committee’s business by midnight on Friday, 15 December. He thanked the colleagues of the Secretariat, calling them heroes for their extra work.