Bahrain Mirror: The High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, addressed political leaders who launched campaigns against universal human rights, saying, "For political leaders who today wage campaigns against universal human rights, or threaten withdrawal from international or regional treaties and the institutions which uphold them, it is worth recalling what the world has achieved over seven decades - and what we all stand to lose if their threats succeed in choking off universal human rights."

During the opening ceremony of the 34th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the high commission said, "(...) Our rights, the rights of others, the very future of our planet cannot, must not be thrown aside by these reckless political profiteers." 

"Human rights was placed in the preamble of the UN Charter not as the last or a third pillar or as some literary flourish. It was there, it came first, human rights was viewed as the necessary starting condition, because on 26 June 1945, the day of the Charter's signing, killing on a scale hitherto unknown to humans had only just come to an end, with cities across the world pulverized and still smoking, monuments to immense human malevolence and stupidity," he went on to say.

In reference to the unprecedented marches of 21 January this year, staged in the US and around the world, the Human Rights High Commissioner said, "I was proud members of my staff took part. We must stand up for human rights." He also noted, "We will not sit idly by. For we have much to lose, so much to protect."

Arabic Version