United Nations (UN) Secretary General, António Guterres has delivered a moving farewell address to members of the UN Human Rights Council during the opening of its 61st Session in Geneva, Switzerland, on Monday.
In his final address at the helm of the UN, Guterres urged member states not to allow the erosion of human rights to become the accepted price of political expediency or geopolitical competition.
He cautioned against a world in which power dictates a new rulebook that leaves the vulnerable without protection and the powerful without limits, calling on the Council to remain a voice and shield for those in need and to help end what he described as a broad and brutal assault on human rights, stressing that a world that protects human rights ultimately protects itself.
“Since this is my final address to the opening of your session, I leave you with this appeal. Do not let the erosion of human rights become the accepted price of political expediency or geopolitical competition. Do not let power write a new rulebook in which the vulnerable have no rights and the powerful have no limits. Let this Human Rights Council be the voice and shield for all those in need. Let this be the place that helps end the broad and brutal assault on human rights. Because a world that protects human rights protects itself. And I thank you.”
—ChannelAfrica/ MichaelMbewe—
