We join all other delegations which have welcomed Louise Arbour
to her responsibility as High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Her work is, of course, well-known to us all, and we at the
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
look forward to maintaining a strong working relationship with
her and the Office in the years ahead.
We intend to intervene in debate on several items during this
Session, but this High Level Segment provides a good opportunity
to sketch the dimensions of our concern for human rights, the
relationship of the Commission's work to Principles and Values
of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which are a cornerstone
of our mandate.
This segment also provides, however, an opportunity to show
our view of the interrelationship of several important world
events to human rights and humanitarian values. Recent events
have made this interrelationship very clear, but they are an
established part of our agenda and have been adopted as such
by Governments and National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
This took place, as the Commission will be aware, in December
2003 at the 28th International Conference of the Red Cross and
Red Crescent, when it adopted the Agenda for Humanitarian Action.
Anti-Discrimination and Disaster Preparedness
The recent World Conference on Disaster Reduction, held in January
2005 in Kobe, Hyogo in Japan, was an opportunity to build a
much better understanding among governments, international organisations
and civil society of the critical importance of community resilience.
Community resilience, or the ability of communities to preserve
their economic, social and cultural values even in times of
the worst adversity, is now recognised as the underpinning for
all effective work to prepare for and rebuild after disasters.
Community resilience depends, as the experience of our worldwide
network of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies shows,
on the ability of whole communities to work together. Without
discrimination of any kind. And with the full empowerment of
all people in the communities.
This means that community resilience, and disaster preparedness
and disaster response, and recovery afterwards, needs the contribution
of the work of this Commission. There are, sadly, still too
many countries where discriminatory traditions and practices
sap the strength of communities and deprive them of the resilience
which is essential to their preparedness.
One example of why this is so important is Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, working as the auxiliary
to the public authorities in the humanitarian field, has been
managing the country's Cyclone Preparedness Programme since
1972.
It is managed alongside the Community-Based Disaster Preparedness
Programme and programme activities reach every village, every
community, in the areas prone to cyclones. These activities
are designed to reach to all the people in those areas. With
no distinction based on ethnic background, gender, social status
or any other ingredient.
The result is that Bangladesh has one of the world's most effective
disaster preparedness and response systems. The programs, and
the partnerships which have been built with government and international
organisations like the World Food Programme, have produced a
remarkable turnaround in damage and loss of life. 2004 saw the
worst cyclone season for decades, with 36 million people affected.
Yet only 747 lives were lost.
The comparison, which shows the absolute importance of a community-based
disaster preparedness program incorporating the whole community
without discrimination, is the loss of half a million lives
in the Great Cyclone of 1970. That terrible event was the catalyst
for the modern programs.
To be successful, such programs have to become part of the culture.
They have to be part of the daily lives of all the people, everywhere.
They have to be backed by active government support, and of
course there must be active and sustained community involvement.
Increasing diversity is a highly relevant component of the Pledge
delivered by the International Federation at the 28th International
Conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in 2003. Our experience,
consistent with the Pledge and our Principles, is that increasing
the diversity disaster preparedness teams improves the capacity
of the teams to identify, represent and address the needs of
the whole community. For example, women volunteers organised
by the Bangladesh Red Crescent are a strong force in the country's
preparedness for disasters.
Many outcomes beyond straightforward disaster preparedness come
from this approach, as Bangladesh has found. The strength of
communities is felt economically, and the empowerment of women
and marginalised populations contributes to growth and development.
These are among the reasons why we in the International Federation
see effective community-based disaster preparedness as a valuable
component supporting the achievement of many other objectives,
including Millennium Development Goal 1 on the reduction of
poverty.
This, for us in the Red Cross Red Crescent, is a practical illustration
of why human rights and programs that combat discrimination
are so essential.
Health and Care
We are working, in the International Federation and throughout
our Red Cross and Red Crescent National Society network, for
the same level of engagement between government and the community
as we now find we can develop in our disaster preparedness and
response work.
Even though there is still much to be done in the disasters
field - as the Kobe Conference demonstrated - there is at least
a strong realisation, and a commitment. We will be working to
put concrete targets and timelines alongside that commitment,
but a good part of the job has been done.
This is not yet true of the struggle against the appalling disaster
of HIV/AIDS.
Everybody working to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic knows that
no investment in treatment or medical care can reach the bulk
of the most vulnerable unless there is an active campaign against
stigma and discrimination. This is a task which encompasses
vulnerability reduction in the fullest sense of the term.
HIV/AIDS, probably more than any other modern disease, is surrounded
by uninformed yet powerful stigma. This has many consequences,
but the saddest of all is the reluctance of people who are infected
with the virus to come forward for treatment.
Commitments are frequently delivered by governments in terms
of aid programs, and with language which implies that HIV/AIDS
is something foreign, something which happens to other people.
One of the key outcomes of the September 2004 Pan-African Conference
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies was the adoption of
the Algiers Plan of Action which reinforces commitments already
made in the struggle against HIV/AIDS. Three of the five most
pressing priorities for Africa relate to this work, and call
for the massive scaling up of effective prevention programs.
This outcome was brought to the attention of the United Nations
General Assembly in October 2004, and the Algiers Plan was tabled
as a United Nations document by the Government of Algeria as
A/59/674.
I will not go into detail with examples, but one country that
stands out for its commitment to work against stigma as part
of an integrated package of programs against HIV/AIDS is Mozambique.
There, the Red Cross Society has developed an intensive program
using community resources, volunteers and government support.
It brings together prevention, community-based care for People
Living with HIV/AIDS and an advocacy campaign against stigma
and discrimination.
Similar priority for HIV/AIDS in the International Federation's
statement on 8 March 2005 to the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs.
In both contexts work against stigma was identified as a key
priority for the international community, and it is important
that the Commission on Human Rights takes up its leadership
opportunity on this issue in the United Nations system.
Chair, permit me to simplify our requests, through you and the
Commission, to the international community as a whole.
What we want is a targeted commitment from governments to work
against HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases both at home
and abroad.
We want governments to acknowledge that HIV/AIDS threatens any
and all communities, and threatens the economic, social and
cultural world we live in.
We want fresh attention, at the highest levels, to the threat
HIV/AIDS poses to national and international peace and security.
We want those affected by the disease - all those people living
with it - to enjoy life in dignity and with the ability to make
their best contribution to the communities in which they live.
We want risk and impact reduction programs to be matched with
programs which ensure that vulnerability is recognised, and
fully addressed by effective programs. In communities, in education,
in laws and policies. And in all locations, including prisons.
This is a lot to ask, even now and 20 years after the world
first became aware of the disease. For, unfortunately, much
of what has been said by governments and national leaders has
not been backed by action which empowers people living with
AIDS and enables them to contribute to the struggle.
This, is where the Commission on Human Rights has a role. An
effective anti-stigma campaign is essential to halting and reversing
the spread of HIV/AIDS.
We in the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent
Societies, with our members in virtually every community in
the world, ask this Commission to accept what is probably the
biggest human rights challenge of today - to engage seriously
in the struggle against HIV/AIDS by tackling the threat posed
by continued stigmatization.
As my remarks have made clear, it is not possible for governments
to succeed in building community resilience in disaster situations
or communities empowered through the removal of stigma without
alliances and partnerships with the communities themselves.
This, in a curious sense, is part of the flowering of the civil
and political rights agenda which occupies so much of the time
of the international community. But the fact is that civil,
political, economic, social, cultural and all other human rights
are indivisible and interdependent. Everyone, and every institution,
has a responsibility to help secure a world at peace where people
can live in dignity and prosperity.
Our role, through the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies,
is to help partner that search. We have the unique characteristic
of being, in every country, the partner to government through
the status of our National Societies as auxiliaries to the public
authorities in the humanitarian field.
This is why we see such value in developing fresh partnership
opportunities through links between National Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies and National Human Rights Institutions.
I very much hope it will be possible to devote more detailed
time to this later in the Session under the agenda item on National
Institutions. But, in brief, our message will be that we in
the International Federation are ready to proceed with the signing
of an agreement with the Office of the High Commissioner aimed
at encouraging collaboration between National Institutions and
National Societies.
The drafting of the agreement was initiated when Mary Robinson
was High Commissioner. It proceeded quickly with the encouragement
of our dear friend Sergio Vieira de Mello, and would have been
signed in late 2003. Now, however, we are delighted that the
High Commissioner has included a reference to this action in
her report to the Commission on National Institutions, and I
look forward to discussing with her the finalisation of this
stage of this important work.
I referred to recent events and their impact on our work at
the outset of this statement.
Disasters are not often considered in the same agenda frame
as human rights, but I hope my comments on the World Conference
on Disaster Reduction have demonstrated the point.
The International Federation had the honour to deliver one of
the closing statements at that Conference. When we did so we
expressed our concern that the commitments were not backed either
by targets or timetables, and said we would take up that issue
in all relevant conferences.
Now, with the additional urgency provided by the experience
the world has shared through response to the Asian earthquakes
and tsunamis, the issue is all the more relevant. Much of the
suffering experienced by people resulted from too little warning,
and inadequate warning systems.
Our experience is that even the most sophisticated technology
must be backed by community involvement, trained volunteers,
and a willingness of people to work together to live and survive.
This is what we said at the Mauritius International Meeting
for Small Island Developing States, as well as in the major
Ministerial meetings on the Tsunami.
It is also what we have concentrated on in our own meetings.
There have been several, at different levels, and the message
has been consistent:
Disaster preparedness and response depends for its effectiveness
on the involvement of communities.
Effective work against the HIV/AIDS pandemic requires the involvement
of those affected by and living with the disease.
Our message here is that the Commission on Human Rights has
an equally important responsibility to build an enabling environment
for that community involvement in the design, implementation
and monitoring of all programs relevant to these objectives.
With that kind of environment in place, human rights are assured.
Human Rights are not an end in themselves - they are the means
which secure peace, prosperity and human dignity, and the achievement
of the Millennium Development Goals.
It is in that spirit that we look forward to completing our
agreement with the High Commissioner and facilitating action
and coherent collaboration between our National Societies and
their counterpart National Human Rights Institutions.
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