High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini, together with Ministers and representatives from thirteen countries, launched today in the margins of the 73rd UN General Assembly a new global initiative to promote 'Good Human Rights Stories'.
At the high-level launch event, Federica Mogherini said: "It is true that human rights continue to be violated all around the world, and that in some countries the situation is getting worse and worse. But there is nothing inevitable about this. Each individual, each country and institution has a clear choice to make: we can believe in the possibility of positive change."
The Good Human Rights Stories initiative aims to promote a fresh positive narrative on human rights in the world, based on celebrating individual and cross-regional ownership of the universality and indivisibility of human rights. The participants commit to upholding and improving human rights domestically and internationally, through good governance, strong independent rule-of-law and democratic institutions, and by working closely with civil societ
At the high-level event in New York today, attended by António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations and Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, different countries from all regions of the world, presented positive examples from their respective countries to inspire best practice in the implementation of human rights-based policies and open consultative processes.
As we celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, this initiative seeks to complement ongoing and multilateral efforts to support progress in human rights, based on the international rules-based order.
The participants committed to continue their work based on thematic cooperation, notably at the Human Rights Council. Participating countries include Georgia, Tunisia, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Chile, Peru, Norway, Cape Verde, Argentina, Uruguay.
See the full text of the joint communiqué here. Audio-visual coverage of the event can be found on EbS. Full remarks of High Representative/Vice-President Mogherini during the opening are available here. 