Third Committee, 20th plenary meeting - General Assembly, 81st session

Colleagues, if we could take our seats, we'll commence in a second. Okay, thank you so much. The 20th meeting of the Third Committee at the 81st session of the General Assembly is called to order. And let me remind delegations that the deadline for the submission of draft proposals under agenda items 25, 66, and 67 is today at 1:00 p.m. and I now invite the committee to continue its consideration of agenda item 70, entitled Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and its sub-items A to D. I am now in a happy position of being able to welcome our Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Ms. Andrea Bolanos Vargas. I hope I have said that correctly. In the usual way, participants wishing to make comments and pose questions are invited to press their microphone button within the next three minutes, after which we will close the list. But we will then have a list, and the length of the list will determine how long each delegation speaks for, and I will announce that when we move to delegation interventions. Let me now invite Ms. Vargas to introduce your report. Thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you, President.

Thank you very much, Chair. Excellencies, it is an honor to address the General Assembly for the first time as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders and to be the first woman from Latin America to assume this mandate. I would like to begin by recognizing the commitment and courage of human rights defenders around the world. Their work contributes daily to building more just, secure, and supportive unified societies. Through their commitments, they create pathways toward a more dignified and hopeful future for all of humanity. Their work is also essential for states. They serve as partners in strengthening democracy, the rule of law, and the protection of human rights. During my first months as Special Rapporteur, I chose to listen before defining my priorities. To that end, I held 11 dialogues with women human rights defenders from seven regions of the world, as well as specific dialogues with indigenous, environmental, and climate defenders, as well as women and LGBTIQ+ defenders. I also launched a global survey in five languages, which received 1,122 responses. And what these defenders expressed should be a cause for concern. 66% of the defenders surveyed considered that their situation had worsened over the previous 12 months. Among LGBTIQ defenders, this figure reached 78%. Around 75% indicated that restrictive laws, policies, or regulatory frameworks had negatively affected their work. Criminalization has become the most prevalent risk worldwide. This occurs through the misuse of counterterrorism legislation, the adoption of arbitrary and restrictive legal frameworks and policies, and reprisals against those who cooperate with international and regional human rights mechanisms, including those connected to the organization over which this Assembly presides. These forms of repression are rarely isolated. Criminalization is combined with disinformation and stigmatization, surveillance, arbitrary detention, administrative restrictions, as well as funding restrictions, digital attacks, and in some cases, violence against defenders themselves, as well as their families. Stigmatization is often the beginning of a deeper process of repression. It is not merely a reputational attack, it is a tool used by some states and non-state actors to delegitimize their work and justify further aggression. This can be seen in all regions of the world, including those with a longstanding democratic tradition. And the human cost is enormous. 83% of respondents indicated that attacks related to their work had negatively affected their health and psychosocial well-being. Nearly 50% of female human rights defenders had had to leave their homes at some point to seek safety. 24% have been internally displaced, and 22% were forced into exile. Leaving one's country does not guarantee safety. Defenders in exile have reported surveillance, harassment, attacks against their family members, arbitrary deprivation of nationality, and other forms of transnational repression. Behind these figures are people who through their work help communities live with dignity and ensure that injustices are not silenced and that rights could be a reality for those who need the most. Allow me to share the words of one defender. What we hope for is to be able to rebuild our lives and to continue contributing in freedom and safety. No one should have to choose between remaining silent, going to prison, or living in exile for defending human rights." End of quote. These findings inform my initial priorities, which will remain cross-cutting throughout my mandate. The cycle of criminalization against human rights defenders, human rights defenders in situations of human mobility, including displacement, exile, and transnational repression, and health and psychosocial well-being of human rights defenders. Throughout this work, I will apply a participatory, intersectional, and differentiated approach. Excellencies, today, I would like to invite States to engage in a constructive dialogue with me. I encourage you to continue cooperating with my mandate. Please respond to our communications. Your responses contribute essential information that helps us understand the context, assess situations, and formulate more effective recommendations. I would also like to thank those States which have accepted my requests for country visits and encourage all other States to make use of this mechanism. I urge you to publicly recognize human rights defenders as indispensable allies and an essential part of the just, inclusive, and democratic societies we seek to build. Creating the conditions that enable their work is an investment in the future of our societies. Protection alone is not enough. The aspiration must be that no one has to risk their safety, freedom, or life to defend human rights. States have the unequivocal obligation to ensure that all people can do so safely, freely, and without discrimination. Ensuring an enabling environment for the defense of human rights is a way of realizing the principles and values of the Charter of the United Nations and the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders adopted by consensus by this General Assembly. Protecting human rights defenders means protecting our right to live in societies where abuses can be exposed, injustices can be corrected, and everyone can live with dignity, justice, and freedom. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Special Rapporteur. I now open the floor to interventions from delegations. The time limit for each intervention will be two minutes, and in the usual way, the microphone will be cut off at the two-minute mark, and the timing should be identified on the screen in front of you. I have the following initial speakers: Poland, Canada, Liechtenstein, Czechia, Slovenia, and Morocco. Poland, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Poland aligned with the EU statement. Poland greatly value the work of human right defenders across the globe, done sometimes at significant personal risk, which increased considerably in the conflict of authoritarian settings. Human right defenders plays an important role in upholding rule of law, strengthening democratic institutions, and ensuring accountability for human rights violations. By documenting abuses and supporting victims, they give a voice to those who are often brutally silenced. We thank you, Madam Special Rapporteur, for your recent report providing a brief overview of global trends and challenges facing defenders. We are particularly concerned that the global environment for the defense of human rights and consequently for the exercise of the right to defend human rights is becoming increasingly hostile and restrictive. In many cases, repression is not limited to prison walls. Authoritarian governments increasingly use restrictive legislation, fabricated criminal charges, digital surveillance, transnational repressions, and public smear campaigns to dismantle independent civil society. Madam Special Rapporteur, what are the best solutions to support and protect human rights defenders operating in conflict and authoritarian settings? Thank you.

Thank you, Poland. I pass for the Canada to be followed by Liechtenstein. Canada.

Madam Special Rapporteur, Canada warmly welcomes you to your new role, and we look forward to engaging with you.

Canada

shares your concern that the global environment for human rights defenders is increasingly challenging, marked by resource constraints, intimidation, reprisals, digital violence, criminalization, transnational repression, and the cumulative impacts of violence and insecurity.

It is clear that urgent, coordinated, and dedicated action is needed to strengthen protection frameworks and ensure defenders can carry out their work freely.

Canada reaffirms its commitment as a steadfast partner in this regard. That is why Canada is supporting the Lighthouse Global Protection

Fund, a coalition that brings together governments, philanthropic foundations, and civil society organizations to

strengthen protection for human rights defenders at risk.

Administered by Frontline Defenders, the fund provides rapid and flexible support to threatened defenders and the organizations that support them. Since its launch, it has supported more than 300 emergency protection measures across 70 countries. Canada also supports multi-donor initiatives that help address digital threats facing human rights defenders, including

transnational repression, while strengthening democratic resilience.

This includes the Common Good Cyber Fund, announced jointly with the United Kingdom during Canada's G7 presidency in 2025.

Special Rapporteur, what more can international partners

do to support defenders who face escalating risks while ensuring that our support remains responsive to local priorities and needs?

Our expression of support for human rights defenders is not merely solidarity.

Human rights defenders are often the first to identify emerging risks,

expose violations and abuses, promote accountability, and strengthen the institutions that underpin resilient societies.

As you begin your mandate, have any promising practices emerged that could help strengthen protection frameworks for human rights defenders?

Thank you, Canada. I pass the floor to Liechtenstein, followed by Chile. Liechtenstein, you have the floor.

Congratulations on your recent appointment as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. A recurring concern outlined in your report is the online harassment of human rights defenders, particularly women. In this context, we would welcome your views on what member states can do to better protect human rights defenders online. Further, you emphasize that the work of human rights defenders can be physically and psychologically demanding, making support in both areas essential. How can we also support family members and their networks who often face consequences themselves? I thank you.

Thank you, Lucien Stein. Czechia, followed by Slovenia. Czechia, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. The Czech Republic aligns itself with the statement that will be delivered by the European Union. We would like to thank the Special Rapporteur for her first report that outlined how the Special Rapporteur intends to address and develop the scope of her mandate. We have studied with great concern the chapter on global trends, which describes significant deterioration of the situation of human rights defenders worldwide. You have mentioned tools as misuse of laws relating to counterterrorism, national security, public order and foreign agents, complicated registration and funding of non-governmental organizations and cybercrime. Furthermore, human rights defenders face more often direct human rights violations as arbitrary detentions and forced disappearances, surveillance and disinformation campaigns. We welcome your intention to focus on mental health and psychosocial well-being of human rights defenders. They face pressure during their activities and unfortunately quite often during their imprisonment. In this context, allow me to mention the extremely complicated situation of human rights defenders in Belarus and in Russia. Many of them have been imprisoned for long-term prison sentences and they have faced serious health complications. We would like to mention the situation of Ukrainian human rights defenders from occupied Crimea, Ms. Irina Davelovich and Mr. Ahmed Suleimanov, who have been detained in Russian prisons without proper medical care. Madam Special Rapporteur, how do you intend to deal with, in our opinion, the worst situation of human rights defenders, such as persons imprisoned in states which do not cooperate with the UN human rights mechanisms, and persons imprisoned for long-term prison sentences and with serious health complications. I thank you.

Thank you, Czechia. I pass the floor to Slovenia, followed by Morocco, then Switzerland, European Union, and Pakistan. Slovenia, you have the floor.

Mr. Chair, Slovenia aligns itself with the statement that will be delivered by the European Union. We thank the Special Rapporteur for her presentation and welcome the team of her report. Madam Special Rapporteur, human rights defenders worldwide are operating in an increasingly restrictive environment, marked by shrinking civic space and growing pressures and constraints of their work. Given their essential role in safeguarding human rights and promoting accountability globally, The international community should ensure their safe and meaningful participation on national level as well as in multilateral forums, where their perspectives can contribute to more informed responses to existing and emerging human rights challenges. In your report, you highlighted the intersectional nature of the challenges faced by human rights defenders. Slovenia notes with particular concern that many human rights defenders, including women, youth, indigenous defenders, and defenders with disabilities, are exposed to distinct forms of violence, often exacerbated by compounded forms of discrimination. In this regard, how can States ensure that protection mechanisms effectively respond to their vulnerabilities that require tailored responses? Let me conclude by underlining that states have a primary responsibility and duty to protect human rights for all, including human rights defenders, and to reiterate Slovenia's support for your mandate. I thank you.

Thank you, Slovenia. Morocco, followed by Switzerland. Morocco, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My delegation welcomes Mrs. Andrea Bolanos Vargas and congratulates her on her appointment. Morocco shares the report's conclusions. Human rights defenders play a vital role in every democratic society. The active engagement of individuals, groups, and organizations is essential to real progress and the realization of human rights. This conviction guides Morocco's action. Our constitution enshrines all the rights set out in the UDHR. Morocco continuously aligns its legislation and public policies with international standards to give human right defenders full legal certainty. This momentum has been accompanied by further progress and broader legal guarantees for public freedoms, with economic and social policies that recognize development as a human right, with renewed channels of interaction between civil society and national institutions. This legal, administrative, and institutional framework allows human right defenders, including children and young people, to carry out their work freely. They can express themselves without hindrance and organize gatherings and demonstrations in public spaces. His Majesty the King, Mohammed VI's speeches have made civil society a key partner in designing, implementing, and evaluating public policies. Constitutional mechanisms for petitions, legislative initiatives, and consultation give civil society a meaningful role in decision-making. Mr. Chair, Morocco is convinced that stronger partnerships with human rights defenders are the surest way to meet shared challenges together and to advance respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Thank you.

Thank you, Morocco. I don't know why the timer is Switzerland, you have the floor.

Chair, we congratulate the Special Rapporteur on her recent appointment and thank her for presenting her first report, which sets out her priorities for the years ahead. Switzerland wishes to reaffirm the essential role played by human rights defenders around the world. At a time when achievements in the field of human rights are increasingly being challenged, their work to protect and promote human rights is more indispensable than ever. Madam Special Rapporteur, we welcome the priorities you have identified, as well as your comprehensive and cross-cutting approach, which adopts an intersectional perspective, promotes inclusive participation, and ensures accessibility, while drawing on evidence-based data and international human rights standards. Our question is as follows. What are your priorities with regard to cooperation with regional human rights mechanisms, And how do you intend to promote coherent and complementary approaches? With regard to transnational repression, we underscore the importance of the declaration co-signed by more than 130 experts from the Human Rights Council's special procedures and treaty bodies, published in September 2026. It is essential to mobilize all relevant stakeholders to translate its principles into concrete and coordinated action. I thank you.

Thank you, Switzerland. European Union, followed by Pakistan. European Union.

Thank you, Chair. On behalf of the EU and its member states, we welcome Special Rapporteur Bolanos Vargas' report and thank her for her work. The meaningful participation of human rights defenders and civil society is essential. They bring evidence, expertise, and lived experience to our work, often at great personal risk. Yet, as your report highlights, many who cooperate with the United Nations face widespread, persistent, and increasingly sophisticated acts of intimidation and reprisal by both state and non-state actors. The criminalization of civil society activities, intimidation, harassment, and continued misuse of counterterrorism laws, sometimes even for those living in exile, deter individuals and organizations from engaging with our work. You report about a growing environment of fear and self-censorship with regards to working with the UN. We agree that is a substantive loss to us all. We are especially concerned at the reported rise in transnational repression, growing in scale and sophistication, including forms of surveillance and harassment facilitated by digital technology. Reported cases of in absentia trials, online and offline surveillance, digital harassment, confiscation of passports and movement restrictions have drastic impacts on individuals concerned, as well as their families and associates in countries of origin. We further note with concern the continued targeting of independence mandate holders and experts, as well as the disproportionate impact of reprisals on women human rights defenders, indigenous peoples and young people. Special Rapporteur, we fully support your notion that the primary responsibility for preventing and addressing intimidation and reprisals against cooperation with the UN lies with its member states. What additional measures should states prioritize to protect the participation of civil society and human rights defenders? And what further measures should states take to tackle the growing threats posed by transnational repression? I thank you.

Thank you, European Union. I have Germany, followed by Ireland, Russian Federation, and Cote d'Ivoire. Germany, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Germany aligns itself with the EU statement. We thank the Special Rapporteur for her report and share the concerns expressed therein. In many countries, human rights defenders face mounting pressure, be it through the adoption of restrictive legal and policy frameworks, new digital technologies, or undisguised violence. Increasingly, authoritarian regimes also repress human rights defenders transnationally. Oftentimes, life-saving funding for them is shrinking. Germany remains committed to protecting human rights defenders. Therefore, we have become a founding member of the new Lighthouse Global Protection Fund this year. We reiterate our utmost concern about the large and rising numbers of cases in which human rights defenders are persecuted and silenced. To name just a few, we call on the Russian Federation to immediately release Daria Egereva and Natalia Leongardt, prominent voices for indigenous rights who are arbitrarily detained and criminalized. We call on China to immediately release Chow Hang Tung, a highly respected lawyer sentenced to prison for her work for democracy in Hong Kong. Special Rapporteur, first, what concrete measures should host states take to strengthen due diligence, prevent foreign interference, and provide effective comprehensive protection to exiled defenders within their jurisdictions? Second, criminalization is the most prevalent risk for human rights defenders worldwide. How will your mandate address the abusive use of different legal frameworks as well as the transnational coordination of these restrictive frameworks. I thank you.

Thank you, Germany. I pass to Ireland, then the Russian Federation. Ireland, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Ireland aligns with the statement of the European Union. Special Rapporteur, congratulations on your appointment and thank you for your report. Protecting the rights of human rights defenders in civil society space remains a central and consistent priority for Ireland. We share the concern of the Special Rapporteur in relation to the worsening conditions for human rights defenders globally. Shrinking civic space leaves us all worse off. We rely on human rights defenders' expertise, on-the-ground insight and contribution to ensuring accountability. It is profoundly concerning that criminalisation and misuse of legal frameworks are identified as increasing risks, with many people reporting restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and association. Transnational repression is also increasing in scale and sophistication, including forms of surveillance and harassment facilitated by digital technology. This affects not just defenders, but their families and associates as well. We are also concerned at the increased threats facing LGBTQI+ persons and women human rights defenders. We look forward to engaging with the Special Rapporteur in the implementation of her mandate over the next years. Special Rapporteur, what practical steps can the international community take to facilitate the safe, effective and meaningful participation of human rights defenders at the United Nations? Thank you.

Thank you, Ireland. I pass to the Russian Federation, then Cote d'Ivoire, Pakistan, then Myanmar. So, Russian Federation, you have the floor.

Respect and pleasure, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Chairman, the Russian Federation recognizes the valuable work of certain individuals, groups and associations aimed at promoting the effective elimination of all violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms of peoples and individuals. We must note, however, that this conviction is not shared by all states, in particular in Ukraine and the Baltic states. Intimidation, repression and persecution, including criminal prosecution, is what awaits public figures who have the courage to speak out in defence of the rights and interests of the Russian-speaking population of their own countries. Detailed information in this regard was provided by the Russian Federation to the Special Rapporteur in August in response to her request for information for the preparation of her report for the 64th session of the HRC. More specifically, we would like to once again draw attention to the fate of the Latvian public figure Aleksandra Gaponenko, whom a Latvian court sentenced to 10 years imprisonment on the preposterous pretext of participation in a roundtable organized by Russia's Institute of CIS countries. Equally concerning is the situation surrounding another Latvian human rights defender, Viktor Gushin, who has been under arrest since mid-December 2025 for publishing articles on Russian internet platforms. Does Riga truly believe that academic activity poses a threat to its national security? There are many such examples. We expect that the Special Rapporteur will study the information we have provided and issue a public assessment statement duly assessing such actions without yielding to political pressure. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you, Russian Federation. I pass to Cote d'Ivoire, Pakistan, and Myanmar. Cote d'Ivoire, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Cote d'Ivoire thanks the Special Rapporteur for presenting her report and takes note of the report, which highlights a significant deterioration in the rights of human rights defenders worldwide. My country notes with regret that the global context for the defense of human rights is becoming increasingly hostile and restrictive, with increasing prevalence of repressions against human rights defenders. My delegation regrets all forms of repression characterized by surveillance measures, online attacks, stigmatization, arbitrary detention, attacks against family members, and reprisals for cooperation with international or regional human rights mechanisms. That is why my delegation fully endorses the recommendations of the Special Rapporteur and urges states to take measures aimed at creating an enabling environment that allows human rights defenders to carry out their work in peace. We are convinced that human rights defenders play an essential role in preventing violations, promoting dialogue, and strengthening democracy. In this context, my delegation would like to hear the rapporteur's views on ways to better protect human rights defenders in the digital space. What concrete measures and best practices does she recommend to states in order to guarantee a safe and enabling environment for human rights defenders? Thank you.

Thank you, Cote d'Ivoire. Pakistan, followed by Myanmar. Pakistan, you have the floor.

Mr. Chair, Pakistan thanks the Special Rapporteur for her report and wishes her success in discharging her mandate.

We recognize the important contribution of human rights defenders to promoting dignity, justice, and accountability. Their peaceful activities must be protected in accordance with international human rights obligations and the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. The report highlights growing threats, including intimidation, digital surveillance, and attacks affecting defenders and their families. Its attention to mental health and psychological well-being is timely.

Protection must combine prevention, access to justice, and practical support tailored to those at risk. Mr. Chair, these concerns acquire particular urgency in situations of foreign occupation.

Those documenting violations and advocating fundamental rights must be able to work without fear of detention, violence, or reprisals. Effective implementation of this mandate requires impartiality, objectivity, and non-selectivity. Constructive dialogue with states, credible and verified information, and due consideration of their responses are essential to building trust and achieving results. Pakistan supports stronger national protection mechanisms, capacity building, and international cooperation responsive to national needs. Particular attention should be given to women defenders and those working in remote or conflict-affected settings. We ask the Special Rapporteur what practical measures can strengthen protection and access to United Nations mechanisms for human rights defenders living under foreign occupation. I thank you.

Thank you, Pakistan. I pass the permanent representative of Myanmar, to be followed by United Kingdom. Myanmar, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, Myanmar thanks the Special Rapporteur for her report and the briefing. As the Special Rapporteur rightly noted, human rights defenders are indispensable to the promotion and protection of fundamental freedoms, serving as foundational pillars for democratic governance, the rule of law, and sustainable development. In Myanmar, since the illegal coup in 2021, the military junta has systematically decimated the civil space. date, the crisis only deepens. Perpetrators continue to operate with absolute impunity. Meanwhile, the human rights defenders endure arbitrary arrest, torture, prolonged detention, lethal threats, and extrajudicial killing and unfair trial by the military hunter. They continue to face severe ill treatment and the deprivation of necessary and essential medical care conditions, culminating in loss of life. At the same time, digital repression state exists, advanced digital surveillance tool help being abused by the hunter to monitor, track and intimidate civil society. Women activists and human defenders are particularly targeted, enduring gender-based humiliation and coordinated online abuse designed to undermine their credibility and break their resolve. In the face of their deliberate aerial bombardment, targeting homes, schools, medical facilities, religious buildings, and camps for internally displaced persons, the junta has orchestrated sham elections and seeks further illegal avenues to obtain international legitimacy. This is clearly a disgraceful exercise. Instead, stark contracts that democratic forces are systematically documenting, Hunter, great violations to ensure comprehensive accountability, establishing complaint mechanism to support victims and collaborating closely with international bodies to champion justice. Similarly, the UN bodies and special mandate holders have consistently.

I thank the Permanent Representative of Myanmar. United Kingdom to be followed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands. United Kingdom, you have the floor.

Thank you, Special Rapporteur. The United Kingdom welcomes you to your role and looks forward to working with you throughout your term. The position of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders is a vital champion for these brave individuals.

The UK is committed to supporting and protecting them.

Your report demonstrates the growing levels of reprisals against human rights defenders by those who seek to silence them.

These threats include harassment, smear campaigns, arbitrary detention, and violence. Transnational repression is becoming all too common, and this unacceptable practice seeks.

To intimidate and control human rights defenders beyond borders, undermining rights, freedoms, and security for all of us.

The UK unequivocally condemns these acts of reprisals. Your report shows that these threats.

To human rights defenders are global and increasingly coordinated by those who seek to silence them. That means we need a global and coordinated response. The UK is proud to support the Lighthouse Fund, providing protection for human rights defenders under threat.

Special Rapporteur, what more can States do to collectively?

Combat instances of transnational repression of human rights defenders. Thank you.

Thank you, United Kingdom. I pass the floor to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, to be followed by Brazil. Netherlands, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Benelux countries, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The Benelux fully aligns with the statement delivered by the EU. The Benelux thanks the Special Rapporteur for her report. and welcomes her engagement with human rights defenders. We strongly support your mandate and the essential role human rights defenders play in protecting and promoting human rights. We welcome the Special Rapporteur's attention to the increasing intersecting risks faced by human rights defenders. Protection measures should take the specific circumstances into account, including for those who may face multiple forms of discrimination or heightened risks, such as women and LGBTIQ+ human rights defenders. We also stress the importance of an enabling legal and policy environment, both online and offline. States should ensure that legislation and administrative measures facilitate rather than restrict the legitimate work of human rights defenders. And we are concerned by the growing use of transnational repression against them. We urge all States to protect civic space and ensure that all human rights defenders can carry out their work safely and freely without intimidation, discrimination or criminalization. Special Rapporteur, we have a question. What one thing should states change in their laws and policies to create a better enabling environment for the protection of human rights defenders? Thank you.

I thank the Kingdom of the Netherlands, speaking for the Benelux countries. I pass to Brazil, to be followed by Spain, then Norway. Brazil, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair, Madam Special Rapporteur.

We thank you for your report and reiterate our full support for your mandate.

Brazil considers it essential to the human rights agenda that the States ensures the protection of human rights defenders, enabling them to carry out their work free from intimidation, violence and interference, particularly by those responsible for human rights violations. Brazil supports the priorities identified by the Special Rapporteur, such as strengthening public participation and adopting an intersectional approach. We also emphasize the important role played by journalists and environmental human rights defenders, whose work remains disproportionately targeted by persistent rights violations. Furthermore, we would encourage her to pay particular attention to violations against specific groups, including traditional communities such as quilombolas, indigenous peoples, people of African descent, women, and LGBTQIA+ persons. Regarding the challenges ahead, attacks against human rights defenders have increased significantly in recent years, particularly in the digital space, alongside growing pressures on human rights, democracy, and multilateralism. In that sense, your mandate is vital to encourage greater recognition of the essential role of human rights defenders and to promote thorough cooperation to promote through the cooperation the capacity building necessary to create an enabling environment for them, especially through the effective investigation of violations against defenders. Madam Special Rapporteur, how do you plan to share best practices regarding the implementation of successful national protection plans for human rights defenders? Thank you very much.

Thank Brazil, I pass to Spain to be followed by Norway. Spain, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Chairman. Spain aligns itself with the statement of the European Union and we commend the Special Rapporteur on her outstanding work in fulfilling her mandate. Human rights defenders are the foundation of the defense of human rights in the multilateral system, but we're seeing an alarming deterioration of the global civic space characterized by the criminalization of those who are defending human dignity and the environment. Spain expresses its deep concern about restrictive laws that affect civil society and that clamp down on peaceful protest. We also call out the devastating impact of these measures on the psychosocial health of human rights defenders. We are particularly concerned to see the increased rates of transnational measures that are being taken by authoritarian governments. And we are fully committed to upholding the early warning mechanisms that exist to prevent these scenarios. We have a clear priority, which is to ensure the effective protection of human rights defenders throughout the world. as well as defenders of the environment, those upholding women's rights. And we pay particular tribute to the tireless work of women human rights defenders who risk their lives as they go about their crucial work trying to help people. Madame Special Rapporteur, what specific measures should states take to beef up their legal framework to deal with these pressures? Thank you.

Thank you, Spain. I pass to Norway and then Afghanistan. Norway, you have the floor.

Mr. Chair, I have the honor to speak on behalf of the Nordic and Baltic states. Human rights defenders and the vibrant civil society are indispensable to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law. We thank the Special Rapporteur for her first report to the General Assembly and welcome her defender-centered, participatory, and intersectional approach. We are deeply concerned by the reported deterioration in the environment of defending human rights. Defenders face criminalization, restrictive laws, surveillance, digital attacks, disinformation, reprisals and violence, while reduced funding is weakening both their work and their protection. Some defenders face heightened and intersecting risks and discrimination. That is the case in particular for indigenous, environmental, LGBTQI+, youth and women's rights defenders, as well as defenders living in displacement. We urge all States to publicly recognize the legitimate role of human rights defenders and to create a safe and an enabling environment in which they can work freely, safely and effectively, both online and offline. This requires reviewing laws and practices that unduly restrict their work, investigating attacks and reprisals, ensuring meaningful participation and sustainable funding, and providing holistic protection that includes digital security and mental health and psychosocial support. We are particularly concerned that exile no longer necessarily provides safety as transnational repression, including digital surveillance and online harassment, increasingly follows defenders across borders. Madam Special Rapporteur, how can states, the United Nations, and technology companies cooperate more effectively to prevent and respond to transnational technology-facilitated attacks against human rights defenders, while ensuring that protection measures are designed with defenders themselves? Thank you.

I thank Norway on behalf of the Nordic and Baltic states. I pass to the Permanent Representative of Afghanistan, followed by Belarus and then China. Afghanistan, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We thank the Special Rapporteur for her report. In Afghanistan, defending human rights can cost one's freedom, safety, and life. The Taliban target defenders, particularly women, through arbitrary detention and forced disappearances, torture, and reprisals against their families. Women protesters and human rights defenders have reported sexual harassment, threats of sexual violence, and sexual abuse in Taliban custody. These abuses punish peaceful resistance and silence others. Stigma and fear of retaliation obstruct reporting and accountability. Those advocating for rights education, supporting survivors, or documenting abuses continue their work at considerable personal risk. Threats against their families deepen their vulnerability and discourage others from speaking out. We call for independent investigation, survivor protection and accountability. No woman should face abuse for demanding her rights. No perpetrator should enjoy impunity. We welcome the report's focus on mental health, displacement and the criminalisation of human rights work. Afghan defenders living in hiding or exile urgently need practical support. Leaving Afghanistan does not necessarily bring safety. We urge Member States to provide emergency protection, and safe relocation pathways, uphold non-refoulement and ensure predictable finding, legal assistance and confidential psychological care. Afghan women defenders must participate meaningfully and safely in decisions concerning their country. Engagement with the Taliban must never compromise their protection or accountability. Madam Special Rapporteur, how can your mandate, working with the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Richard Bennett, protection for Afghan women defenders.

I thank the Permanent Representative of Afghanistan. I pass to Belarus, to be followed by China. Belarus, you have the floor.

Chair, Madam Special Rapporteur, colleagues, We are compelled to make this statement in connection with the statement delivered by Czechia. We reject the assertions that people are being held in prisons in Belarus without medical attention. This is a lie. Belarus is a social state that provides free medical care to all those who require it, including those in vulnerable situations and those in detention. We also reject claims regarding the detention of so-called human rights for carrying out human rights activities. Our legislation is fully in line with universally recognized norms of international law and is constantly being enhanced in order to ensure the rights and freedoms of our citizens. In Belarus, the law is applied equally to all. If a person commits a crime and was recognized guilty in accordance with established legal procedures, their profession cannot be used as a justification for criminal activities. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Belarus. And finally, I have China. You have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. China has noted the report of the Special Rapporteur.

China.

Is concerned about the representative of Germany's smears. China firmly opposes Germany's use of the Alliance case to discredit China and Hong Kong's rule of law. China is a country under the rule of law where everyone is equal before the law. No place and no individual is above the law. No profession or status can serve as a shield from legal accountability. Punishing unlawful and criminal acts in accordance with the law is by no means a human rights issue. Some countries and political forces seek to portray criminals as human rights defenders to whitewash their unlawful and criminal conduct. Such actions should be condemned by the international community. Given its persistent discrimination against migrants and attacks tolerance of far-right forces, Germany is in no position to lecture others on human rights. China has consistently supported the work of the Special Procedures and maintains one of the highest response rates to communications among major countries. China stands ready for constructive engagement with the Special Rapporteur based on mutual respect and hopes the Special Rapporteur will perform the mandate objectively with due regard for China's official response. and not be misled by misinformation. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, China. It's now my pleasure to revert to the Special Rapporteur to respond or make some further additional comments. Thank you.

I would like to thank all of those States who who took the floor to raise comments and ask some questions. I would like to try to cluster them together, and in terms of my answers, I would like to clarify some of my priorities. I will, as I say, try to answer all of the questions that were raised. First of all, on the issue of reprisals. No human rights defender should suffer reprisals as a result of working with mechanisms, either at the national, regional or international level. It's critical that states ensure safe, confidential channels of communication to ensure that any reprisals can be reported. It is critical that states act on any kind of intimidation attempts of those who are working with my mandate. Effective measures need to be taken to punish these acts, including those committed by non-state actors. This is a concern also for those who work to ensure accountability for violations of international law, measures against the judges of the ICC, for instance, and those working on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, they don't just affect the people directly involved, but they also undermine the international mechanisms that are there to monitor human rights abuses. and they affect the work of the special rapporteurs. On transnational pressure that many states have mentioned, I would like to mention the joint declaration that many human rights experts signed. I also signed that declaration. In that declaration, it mentions several very important recommendations of how to deal with this issue. The declaration also speaks about the cumulative effects of these measures on the international community and those working in exile. In terms of the impacts on their physical and mental health and their families and the undermining of the social fabric, these are all the repercussions that these measures can have. As you know, there will be a specific report on this issue, and states ultimately have to put an end to this practice. States are encouraged to recognize human rights defenders in countries that can welcome and offer shelter to people requiring support. This is a way of dealing with this issue. And measures should be taken to avoid risks in terms of digital surveillance, risks to their families, and the abuse of cooperation mechanisms. Protection should be extended to these people, if possible. On the matter of criminalization that several other countries also mentioned, I mentioned in my initial statement that this is one of my priorities, one of the cross-cutting issues that I've worked on throughout my mandate. I have been following up on this issue, I've been liaising with human rights defenders who have been criminalized in countries where they're working. The goal here, as outlined in the report, is not just to analyze this phenomenon and to meet with human rights defenders, but also to try to understand criminalization as a vicious cycle targeting human rights defenders. This is a cycle that often starts with false narratives that human rights defenders are targeted with and stigmatization that affects them too as they carry out their peaceful activities. This is a false narrative that then snowballs and can lead to bullying, harassment, and attacks on their physical health. So the important thing is to document these facts. That's critical, and it's been an important part of my mandate. It's also very important that I speak with you so that I can try to document these issues and so that collectively we can seek solutions on good practices. I don't know if you've seen this on my social media, but I've tried to outline good practices that countries have adopted to protect human rights defenders. Just to give you a couple of examples, and some trends that I'm seeing throughout the world. The establishment of national mechanisms to protect human rights defenders or the adoption of national policies is something that has been done. There are still risks and difficulties in terms of implementation, but it is a first step that some states have taken to try to protect human rights defenders and prevent attacks. So I wish to welcome those mechanisms that have been established in different parts of the world, but in particular in Latin America, to try to protect human rights defenders as they go about their work. Another good practice is the establishment of protocols, investigation protocols for human rights defenders. These have been pushed forward in some countries that I've seen, and I would urge other countries to try to adopt similar policies to investigate any kind of abuses and attacks and ultimately to prevent them from happening in the first place. Another good practice that I've seen is a public recognition of the work of human rights defenders. This is something that I have seen in several countries and I've also provided support to that in my country of origin, that is to say Colombia, by giving a prize to human rights defenders. So that's an example of the kind of public acclaim and recognition that can be given, and it's something that can be replicated in other countries as a way of recognizing the value of these people. Next, on the intersectional approach, that I wanted to outline in my mandate, that's very important for me so that I can analyze and be aware of exactly what is happening to human rights defenders and the most vulnerable people in society. This is an approach that I adopt as a cross-cutting approach throughout the methodology that I use in my work to look at how people are being affected, women, people with disabilities, LGBT people. I'm trying to incorporate accessibility tools for all in my mandate so that I can have the most accurate information possible. And so that I can analyze this information from that viewpoint so that I can pinpoint these different risks that exist and the different protection measures that are most appropriate for different groups in our societies. Lastly, I wish to just stress that the work that I'm going to do and that I've already been doing is rigorous work where we verify everything. We verify our sources. We engage in a dialogue with you and with other stakeholders, including businesses, to try to strengthen the work that we do, to strengthen the independence and objectivity of the information that we use. Thank you very much indeed for your support.

Thank you, Special Rapporteur, for that very engaged presentation. With that, I very much appreciate your presence with us today, and I move to our next presenter, who is the Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery and Trafficking in Persons, Ms. Katerina Schwarcz. You are very welcome, and we're very glad to have you join us today. Participants wishing to make comments or pose questions in the usual way are invited to press their microphones within the next three minutes. Afterwards, we'll create a list and we'll identify the time available for each delegation wishing to speak. I now turn to the Special Rapporteur to make her remarks. Thank you.

Thank you, honorable chair, excellencies, distinguished delegates, and guests. 100 years ago in 1926, the international community formalized a landmark international legal commitment to the eradication of slavery and the slave trade in all their forms everywhere in the world. This agreement marked a fundamental paradigm shift in the global order, an unprecedented commitment to freedom and dignity for all people. Yet, a century after the adoption of the Slavery Convention, contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking in persons remain critical challenges. The intervening years have seen a rising number of people subjected to slavery and trafficking globally. Traditional and descent-based forms persist, and new forms have emerged. Every day, millions of people are subjected to the most severe forms of human exploitation and treated as if they were property. The centenary of the Slavery Convention provides an important moment for reflection on the lessons learned over 100 years of anti-slavery action and for a renewal of commitment and investment in delivering the promise of 1926. The merger of the mandates of the Special Rapporteurs on contemporary forms of slavery and on trafficking in persons further presents an opportunity for a strategic reconsideration of how we can translate our most fundamental international commitments into more effective implementation. dealing holistically with these interrelated practices. Honorable Chair, distinguished delegates, there are many important lessons to be learned from the past century. The progress made in these years should be recognized and celebrated. The progressive development of international legal frameworks addressing slavery, slave trade, forced or compulsory labor, institutions and practices similar to slavery, servitude, the worst forms of child labor, and trafficking in persons provide a crucial normative core for anti-slavery and anti-trafficking action. Their evolution over time has been central to their ongoing relevance in the contemporary world. These frameworks also reflect and advance something even more fundamental, the crystallization of a universal moral consensus against slavery and trafficking in all their forms. These commitments have been complemented and contextualized in regional systems. International institutions have expanded and evolved to champion and support their implementation in practice. National responses have risen to the challenge of translating norms at the domestic level. More recently, awareness and advocacy around the continued presence of slavery and trafficking in our societies and economies have grown. We've seen increased attention and emphasis on activating private sector responsibility for combating slavery and trafficking. The science of anti-slavery and anti-trafficking has developed substantially, underpinning responses with more robust data and evidence. These developments have helped us to understand and begin tackling slavery and trafficking as systemic problems produced by a wide range of intersecting forces, looking beyond criminalization to examine the root causes and drivers that must be addressed to prevent slavery and trafficking before they occur. While reflecting 100 years of progress, the current moment also presents unprecedented challenges for the complete eradication of slavery and trafficking. The exacerbating impacts of rising global instability, conflict, climate change, and environmental degradation drive large numbers of people into precarity. undermine response capacity, and provide fertile ground for slavery and trafficking to thrive. Coupled with widening economic instability and inequality, and intertwined with migration and displacement, these intersecting factors create a high-risk environment in which vulnerabilities are increasing faster than the capacity of systems to respond. Growing use of digital technologies by traffickers further complicates the landscape, enabling more sophisticated, transnational, and less visible forms of exploitation. These dynamics are reinforced by the normalization of exploitative labor systems. Prevailing production and consumption patterns prioritize low costs and normalize exploitation. Weak labor protections and oversight mechanisms allow exploitation to flourish, particularly in informal and hidden sectors. Restrictive migration policies continue to heighten risk. Discrimination and marginalization, including inequalities embedded in law, create and shape vulnerability. Meanwhile, shrinking civic space and funding cuts constrain the ability of civil society actors to respond effectively. Responses remain fragmented and siloed, limiting coordination across sectors and borders. Significant gaps persist between international commitments and domestic laws, as well as between legal frameworks and their implementation in practice. Efforts tend to be reactive, focusing on post-harm interventions rather than prevention and structural change. This complex and challenging contemporary landscape underscores the need for more integrated, preventative, rights-based, and survivor-led approaches. Indeed, the increasing recognition of the role of survivor voice in the global fight against slavery and trafficking is perhaps the most significant lesson learned in recent years and the most promising direction for the next generation of action. People with lived experience have always been at the heart of anti-slavery and anti-trafficking, yet the respect and recognition afforded to lived experience expertise and leadership has not always aligned with survivors' critical role in the movement. Policymakers, practitioners, advocates, and researchers increasingly realize and value the unique expertise that survivors bring and have begun establishing architecture, facilitating meaningful and ethical engagement, and empowering survivor leadership. This is a trajectory that must be accelerated to meet the challenges of the moment and to achieve the change necessary for the future. Honourable Chair, we are at a critical turning point in the fight against contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking in persons. Having learned a century of lessons, it is now time for a new generation of action. The trajectory of progress cannot be taken for granted, it must be strengthened. This moment calls for renewed commitment by states, institutions and societies to resist regressive measures, uphold international obligations, and invest in inclusive, rights-based, survivor-led responses that address root causes. Only through sustained and collective action can a world free from slavery and trafficking be realized and preserved for future generations. I look forward to further engaging with you in a constructive exchange to advance the shared global vision.

Thank you, Special Rapporteur. And I now move to delegation interventions. The time limit will be 1.5 minutes per intervention. In the usual way, the microphone will be shut off, and I'm hoping that the number of minutes available will show on the screen. We have Romania, Australia, Brazil, Italy, Republic of Korea. Romania, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. We reiterate our strong commitment to preventing and combating trafficking in persons, protecting and assisting victims, ensuring access to justice and holding perpetrators accountable. Our response must remain centered on people. It must bring together four key pillars prevention, protection, prosecution and partnership, while adapting to the increasingly complex and transnational nature of trafficking. At the national level, we continue to strengthen our response to this threat, guided by our national strategy against trafficking in persons for 2024-2028. and to enhance inter-institutional coordination and cooperation with international organizations and civil society. As part of these efforts, Romania is developing a national mechanism to identify children at risk and enable timely intervention before exploitation occurs. Victims must remain the center of our efforts. This is why Romania has sought to translate commitments into practice by supporting the first national network of trafficking survivals and ensuring their voices and experiences guide awareness raising efforts and contribute to more victim-centered policies. We must also adapt to the changing nature of trafficking. Digital technologies and online platforms can be misused by traffickers to recruit and exploit victims. In response, Romania has strengthened prevention through targeted online campaigns, particularly addressing risks faced by children and the potential trafficking traps associated with seemingly attractive work opportunities. Special Rapporteur, thank you for your presentation. In your view, what practical measures could Member States prioritize to strengthen the early identification of trafficking victims, particularly children and other persons?

Thank you, Romania. I pass to Australia to be followed by Brazil. Australia, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. We welcome the Special Rapporteur's report, which highlights important progress in eliminating slavery and trafficking, as well as recommendations to guide efforts in the years ahead. Australia remains deeply committed to eradicating all forms of slavery and trafficking in persons, including through Australia's modern slavery.

Framework, which takes an intersectional and integrated approach.

Consistent with the report's focus on the role of businesses, Australia is proposing to introduce new laws to enhance corporate accountability for preventing modern slavery in supply chains. We also welcome the report's focus on upholding the non-punishment principle, which is important for the protection of victims and survivors of slavery and trafficking. As part of our international efforts, through the ASEAN-Australia Countertrafficking Program, Australia has supported ASEAN to develop guidelines on implementing the non-punishment principle, including for victims and survivors of trafficking for forced criminality into online scam operations. Meaningful survivor engagement is a key pillar of Australia's response to modern slavery. Persons with lived experience bring unique expertise to policy and practice. We ask you, Special Rapporteur, what effective practices have you identified for building meaningful survivor leadership and engagement? Thank you.

Thank you, Australia. I pass to Brazil, to be followed by Italy. Brazil, you have the floor.

Brazil thanks the Special Rapporteur for her report A/81/225. In her recommendations, the Special Rapporteur highlights the importance of developing robust regulations to address slavery and trafficking risks in public and private value chains. In this regard, how can states ensure cooperation from major technology companies particularly in a context of growing resistance to binding regulatory obligations and corporate accountability. Mr. Chair, assessing the landmark international commitments adopted by the international community, from the Slavery Convention of 1926 to the UN Talk Protocol on Trafficking in Persons, allows us to take stock of our achievements and identify the changes needed to advance our common goals. As indicated in the report, legal frameworks, while essential, have proven insufficient on their own to eradicate exploitation. Experiences also demonstrate the importance of strong labor institutions, particularly labor inspection systems, in identifying situations of exploitation, protecting workers, and preventing trafficking before it occurs. Sexual drivers, such as poverty, inequality, and restrictive migration systems, increase vulnerability to exploitation. Likewise, approaches narrowly focused on criminalization have proven insufficient to prevent exploitation and protect victims. We recognize how intersecting factors such as social class, race, age, sexual orientation and gender identity, disability and migration status shape vulnerability. I thank you.

Thank you, Brazil. I pass to Italy to be followed by Republic of Korea. Italy, you have the floor.

Mr. Chair, Italy thanks the Special Rapporteur for her report and for highlighting the lessons learned from a century of efforts to eradicate slavery and trafficking in persons. Combating trafficking in persons and ensuring comprehensive support to victims remain longstanding priorities for Italy. Early identification and effective protection are essential to breaking cycles of exploitation and safeguarding victims' rights. As a country on the front line of complex migration flows, we are fully aware of how traffickers exploit vulnerability, conflict, poverty, and desperation. Since 2000, our national anti-trafficking system has provided victims with safe accommodation, legal, medical, and psychological assistance.

It also supports the path

towards independence and social reintegration through a nationwide network funded by the Department for Equal Opportunities. Italy is preparing to enter a new phase in its anti-trafficking efforts. Our National Action Plan against Trafficking in Human Beings and Serious Exploitation for 26-28, which is on the verge of being adopted, will set out priorities and coordinated measures to strengthen prevention, victim protection, and assistance. This commitment is reinforced by increased resources, the strengthening of the anti-trafficking toll-free number, and closer cooperation among public authorities, international organizations, and civil society, in line with the renewed EU framework. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Italy. Passed to the Republic of Korea, to be followed by Belarus. Republic of Korea, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. We appreciate the Special Rapporteur's work and report. As report validly stressed, effective implementation requires practical measures that reflect the realities of exploitation. In this regard, the Korean government began applying specialized indicators this September to identify migrant workers subjected to forced labor in the fishing industry to facilitate early detection and protection. Madam Special Rapporteur, You rightly pointed out the traffickers' growing use of digital technologies. In response, the Group of Friends for Combating Technology-Facilitated Trafficking in Persons was launched here in New York this June in partnership with UNODC. As an action-oriented platform with 29 member states, the group will spotlight the technological dimensions of emerging trafficking trends through side events and other ways. In this regard, my question to you is how can we better address the misuse of technology by traffickers and what role can governments and the international community play in tackling the problem? Thank you.

I thank the Republic of Korea, Belarus, Panama, Spain, and Bangladesh. Belarus, you have the floor.

Distinguished Chair, Special Rapporteur, distinguished colleagues, the Republic of Belarus reaffirms its unwavering commitment to combatting contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking in persons in all their manifestations. We are grateful for the preparation and timely publication of report A/HRC/63/36. We share much of what is said in the report, in particular that efforts to combat slavery and trafficking in persons are transboundary in nature, as well as the focus on the negative consequences of increasingly restrictive and punitive migration regimes. We also share the serious concern regarding the impact on anti-slavery and anti-trafficking initiative of widespread geopolitical trends. At the same time, we are surprised that the report reflects only such examples as the rise of authoritarianism and erosion of democracy, retreat from human rights principles and multilateralism, and the shrinking of civic space. Meanwhile, well-known cases in which information provided to the law enforcement authorities of another state regarding the activities of human trafficking criminal groups operating on its territory was deliberately ignored due to political considerations have unfortunately not been reflected in the report. This is of great concern because transnational criminal networks exploit political disagreements between states, which, according to the UNICRI report, is a key factor hindering international law enforcement cooperation and which enables transnational criminal networks to grow in strength. We positively note the reduction in politicization in the report's approach and express our readiness to provide all our assistance to the Special Rapporteur. Thank you.

Thank you, Belarus. I pass to Panama, to be followed by Spain. Panama, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Panama thanks the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking in persons for presenting her report and for continuing to draw attention to a problem that regrettably continues to affect so many people around the world. Trafficking in persons is not merely a transnational crime. Behind each of these cases are lives that have been marked by abuse, deception, and exploitation. We are talking about women, girls, boys, and men who, in many cases, find themselves in situations of need or vulnerability. and end up becoming victims of these criminal networks. We are concerned that, despite the efforts undertaken, these criminal networks continue to find new ways to recruit and exploit their victims, including through social media and other technological platforms that are difficult to monitor. For Panama, combating trafficking in persons is a responsibility that we must take with full seriousness. Our country recognizes the importance of confronting criminal organizations, strengthening institutions, and working jointly with other states, in line with President Jose Raul Molina's call for more effective international cooperation. Madam Special Rapporteur, based on your experience, what more can states do to prevent trafficking in persons, particularly given new forms of recruitment, and how can we ensure that victims receive the protection and the support they need?

Thank you, Panama. I pass to Spain and Bangladesh. Spain, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Spain aligns itself with the statement delivered by the European Union, and we thank the Special Rapporteur for presenting her report on the slavery. As a party to the key international instruments on slavery and forced labour, is committed to the dignity and rights of all people without exception. We are concerned that poverty, inequality and discrimination, social exclusion and armed conflicts continue to fuel situations of vulnerability that lead abusive practices. We believe it is particularly relevant to call to strengthen a human rights based approach that focuses on protection of victims and prevention. We note emerging challenges identified in the report. Madam Special Rapporteur, what measures do you think are a priority so that states can effectively move forward towards a responsive approach and prevention strategies that address the structural causes of contemporary forms of slavery? Thank you.

Thank you, Spain. I pass to Bangladesh to be followed by Belgium, then Cuba. Bangladesh, you have the floor.

Mr. President, we thank the Special Rapporteur for her comprehensive report. We wish to highlight two major concerns. First, poverty, inequality, conflict, climate change, displacement, and restrictive migration continue to expose vulnerable people, particularly women and children, to trafficking and exploitation. Second, the serious misuse of emerging digital technologies and social media by trafficking networks has created new forms of exploitation, including fraudulent recruitment and forced labor in online scam operations. Bangladesh maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards human trafficking. We would like to highlight two recent initiatives. First, we recently enacted the Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Prevention and Suppression Act 2026, which strengthens prevention, investigation, prosecution and victim protection, and also has provisions to trace illicit financial flows. Second, to support implementation, we adopted the National Plan of Action 2026-2030 that is focused on strengthening institutional capacities, cross-border cooperation and enhancing safe and regular migration pathways. Madam Special Rapporteur, you recommended a holistic approach to address the root causes of trafficking and call for mandatory human rights due diligence by businesses. What other practical measures would you recommend to ensure clear accountability of businesses so that we can see measurable progress? I thank you.

Thank you, Bangladesh. Belgium to be followed by Cuba. Belgium, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. I have the honor to deliver this statement on behalf of the Benelux countries, a longstanding regional partnership compromising the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and my own country, Belgium. We align ourselves to the EU statement and would like to thank the Special Rapporteur for her thorough report on the persistent challenge of contemporary forms of slavery, despite a century of international efforts to eradicate this grave human rights violation. As rightly pointed out by the Special Rapporteur, substantial progress has been achieved in the fight against slavery and trafficking. Nonetheless, we should not lose sight of the remaining challenges, particularly the emerging forms and methods of exploitation and trafficking. The Benelux countries remain deeply concerned that millions of people continue to be subjected to forced labor, human trafficking, forced marriage, and other forms of exploitation. This reality reminds us that modern slavery is not only a criminal justice issue, but builds upon inequalities, lack of robust regulatory frameworks, and needs to be addressed through investment in social protection, education, decent work, and gender equality initiatives. We welcome the report's emphasis on prevention because there is no better protection than prevention. The Benelux embodies the idea of cross-border cooperation. As a precursor for regional integration, only stronger cooperation can bring positive results. Finally, we also share the Special Rapporteur's concern regarding the misuse of digital technologies to facilitate trafficking and coercion.

Thank you, Belgium. For Benelux, I pass to Cuba, then Cameroon. Cuba, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Chair. The challenges associated with trafficking in persons must be addressed by the international community through a cooperative approach that takes into account the realities and context of each country in approaching this issue. Cooperation and exchange of good practices must be prioritized over politicization and selectivity. In Cuba, trafficking in persons is a major issue. Nonetheless, we have a zero tolerance policy towards this issue. We are undertaking a number of efforts despite the limitations imposed by the fuel and energy blockade imposed by the United States, Cuba is committed to preventing and addressing this scourge, as well as to strengthening its traditional cooperative relations with international organizations such as Interpol and the UN system, as well as the relevant competent authorities of other countries in order to address this scourge. Thank you.

Thank you, Cuba. I pass to Cameroon to be followed by Malta, Liechtenstein, Russian Federation, and Nigeria. Cameroon, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My delegation congratulates Special Rapporteur Schwaas on presenting her first report under this unified mandate. Cameron underscores that fighting contemporary forms of slavery today requires a strict focus on immediate human security crisis that requires strengthening border security and judicial sharing networks to intercept the syndicate in real time.

Going beyond a security response, Cameroon is deeply concerned regarding the resources available to provide direct assistance to survivors. There is currently a $4 million deficit in the trust fund, which limits access to medical, legal, and psychological services for victims. We reaffirm that greater, predictable, direct international financing is necessary in order to support our local bodies that provide, that host these victims. As part of your new mandate, Madam Special Rapporteur, how do you intend to mobilize bilateral and multilateral partners in order to urgently bridge the financial gaps of the Voluntary Trust Fund in order to provide assistance to victims in context of humanitarian disaster? How can countries such as Cameroon dismantle forced labour networks? Thank you.

Cameroon, I pass to Malta, followed by Liechtenstein. Malta, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Malta is with the statement to be delivered by the EU and thanks Special Rapporteur for her latest report. A century after the Slavery Convention, while progress has been significant, challenges remain, with millions of people still subjected to contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking in persons. We share the Special Rapporteur's view that these practices are closely interlinked and that legal frameworks, while essential, are insufficient on their own. Structural drivers such as poverty, inequality, discrimination and restrictive migration systems sustain vulnerability, so responses must be systematic, address root causes, strengthen prevention and be rights-based and survivor-centred. Against this backdrop, Malta continues to strengthen its national framework. In August 2024, we launched our National Strategy on Action Plan on Combating Trafficking in Human Beings for the years 2024 to 2030, strengthening our national response. The strategy establishes a comprehensive framework built on four pillars: prevention of crime, protection of victims, prosecution of offenders, and robust multi-level collaboration. It is firmly grounded in a victim-centered, human rights-based, and gender-specific approach. The strategy also upholds the best interests of the child and prioritizes the dignity and safety of all survivors. There have also been other amendments to the criminal code to better safeguard those vulnerable to exploitation. Drawing on these national efforts, we would welcome the SR's views on how the report's recommendations can be implemented through a victim.

Thank you, Malta. I pass to Liechtenstein and then the Russian Federation. Liechtenstein, you have the floor.

We thank the Special Rapporteur for her timely report. We share the concern that modern slavery and human trafficking continue to evolve in the context of conflict, displacement, economic pressures, and other global challenges. We are also concerned by the emergence of large-scale online scam centers, which exploit trafficked persons while generating billions in illicit proceeds. Liechtenstein attaches particular importance to a follow-the-money approach in the fight against this scourge, which remains one of the gravest human rights violations of our time. We do so through our support for the Finance Against Slavery and Trafficking, or FAST, initiative, hosted by UNDP. Could the Special Rapporteur elaborate on how States can better integrate anti-trafficking and anti-slavery efforts with measures to address illicit financial flows derived from modern slavery and human trafficking, while ensuring remedies for victims and survivors? I thank you.

Thank you, Liechtenstein. I pass to the Russian Federation, followed by Nigeria. Russian Federation, you have the floor.

Mr. Chairman, We have carefully studied the report of Ms. Schwartz. We are convinced that it is impossible to effectively eradicate contemporary forms of slavery while ignoring their root causes, which are deeply rooted in the colonial past. The legacy of that era continues to keep entire regions in a state of economic dependence, which creates fertile ground for transnational organized crime. Today, debt ******* and trafficking in persons have moved into the digital sphere. Criminal organizations exploit gaps in international regulation to recruit vulnerable groups into illicit activities, including women and children. The key to success in combating this threat is equal interstate cooperation based on international law. We are seriously concerned by the situation in countries with so-called developed democracies, where concealed discriminatory exploitation of foreign workers continues to flourish in the labor markets. The Russian Federation is interested in a comprehensive and holistic consideration of the issue of human trafficking and combating it, we advocate a constructive and substantive dialogue as well as a balanced approach which pays due attention to all aspects of this multidimensional issue. I thank you.

Thank you, Russian Federation. I pass to Nigeria, followed by Bahrain, then Latvia. Nigeria, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Nigeria thanks the Special Rapporteur for her report and its timely reflection on a century of international efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking. The centenary of the 1926 Slavery Convention is an important reminder that despite significant advances in international law and national legislation, contemporary forms of slavery remain a serious global concern. The estimated 49.6 million people who experienced modern slavery in 2021 underscore the urgent need to translate international commitments into tangible results. Nigeria is particularly concerned about the persistent vulnerabilities stemming from poverty and unemployment, conflict, displacement, and unequal access to decent work, which expose individuals, especially women and children, to exploitation. We recognize that effective responses must go beyond criminal justice measures to address these underlying underlining causes through prevention, public awareness, stronger institutions, and international cooperation. Nigeria further emphasizes the importance of strengthening national registration and enforcement, improving the identification and protection of victims, and ensuring access to justice, rehabilitation, and reintegration. Finally, I would like to use this opportunity to ask special rapporteur, in light of the implementation gaps identified in the report, what practical measures would she recommend to help developing countries strengthen their national anti-trafficking institutions and victim support systems, particularly in the.

Thank you, Nigeria. I pass to Bahrain, followed by Latvia, then Ireland. Bahrain, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. I have the honor to deliver the statement on behalf of the member states of the GCC. We thank the Special Rapporteur on her briefing, and we reaffirm our steadfast commitment to combating trafficking in persons and the protection of victims. In this regard, we have adopted a number of legislative and institutional measures. The UAE has established the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking and developed shelter centers to protect and care for victims. This is in addition to social support and psychological support and training programs. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has strengthened its efforts through the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law and Committee and the National Referral Mechanism for the Protection and Assistance of Victims and the establishment of electronic services to protect workers. The State of Qatar has strengthened its efforts to combat trafficking in persons by developing its legislative and institutional framework. It also established the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking as a comprehensive coordinating platform. And the Ministry of Labor has also launched a national plan to combat human trafficking. The State of Kuwait has established anti-trafficking administration offices. And undertaken training courses for security personnel. The Sultanate of Oman has established the National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking and provided shelter and care services for victims and enacted a new anti-human trafficking law in 2025. The Kingdom of Bahrain has maintained its tier one ranking in the US Department of State's Trafficking in Persons Report for the ninth consecutive year.

Thank you, Bahrain, for the Gulf Cooperation Council. I pass to Latvia to be followed by Ireland. Latvia, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Latvia aligns with the statement to be delivered by the EU. We thank the Special Rapporteur for the comprehensive report. Latvia remains deeply concerned by the persistence of trafficking in persons, slavery and slavery-like practices, which are grave violations of human rights, often hidden in plain sight and enabled by exploitation, inequality and the misuse of technology. We must strengthen prevention, protect and support survivors, and ensure accountability for perpetrators. Latvia addresses these aspects of human trafficking through a comprehensive national action plan. Latvia would like to highlight the findings in your report on the connections between slavery and trafficking as a regular feature of armed conflict, as well as the targeting of socially vulnerable regular migrants for exploitation. These findings are particularly relevant in light of Belarus' continued instrumentalization on vulnerable migrants. Let me condemn the Belarus actions to facilitate exploitation and trafficking in persons. The Lukashenko's regime exploits thousands of vulnerable people from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, luring them to Belarus and facilitating their dangerous journeys and attempts to illegally cross European borders. this year alone, Latvia has prevented more than 12,000 such illegal crossings. We call on Belarus to end these practices and respect its obligations and international law. Latvia is deeply worried about the ever-increasing evidence of Russia's illicit recruitment of vulnerable third-country nationals.

Thank you, Latvia. I pass to Ireland and the European Union. Ireland, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Ireland aligns with the statement which will be delivered on behalf of the EU and thanks the Special Rapporteur for her report. We welcome the report's examination of contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking in persons. We note its findings on factors contributing to vulnerability to exploitation, including poverty, inequality, conflict and discrimination. This highlights the importance of continued efforts to prevent trafficking and contemporary forms of slavery through comprehensive human rights-based approaches. Combating human trafficking and protecting victims and survivors remain priorities for Ireland. Our third National Action Plan to Prevent and Combat Human Trafficking reflects our commitment to strengthen prevention, victim protection, and a coordinated response to trafficking. We also welcome the Special Rapporteur's emphasis on meaningful survivor participation in the development of policies and responses.

We recognize the importance.

Of ensuring that survivors' experiences are reflected in decision-making and contribute to more effective and inclusive approaches. Special rapporteur, how can States further strengthen the meaningful participation of survivors in efforts to combat trafficking in persons and contemporary forms of slavery? Thank you.

Thank you, Ireland. I pass to European Union, followed by United Kingdom. European Union.

Thank you, Chair. I have the honour to speak on behalf of the European Union and its member states. We thank the Special Rapporteur for her report. Millions of people continue to be subjected to forced labour, debt bondage, forced marriage and trafficking in persons. These abuses are often rooted in poverty, inequality, discrimination, conflict and lack of access to decent work, and addressing these underlying vulnerabilities must be made central to our response. Mass displacement also increases risks. Following Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, Member States receiving large numbers of displaced people built screening, information and referral measures at borders and in reception, as anti-trafficking safeguards must be built into the emergency response from the outset. We recognise the growing importance of tackling exploitation in global supply chains and the evolving risks posed by digital technologies, which can facilitate recruitment, coercion and exploitation across borders. We also believe that the voices and experiences of survivors should be at the center of policy development and implementation. The European Union and its member states have taken concrete legislative steps, including the Anti-Trafficking Directive revised in June 2024, to ensure human rights-based, survivor-centered, gender-responsive, and child-sensitive responses. Special Rapporteur, first, could you share examples of preventive policies that have demonstrated the greatest impact in reducing vulnerability to forced labor and trafficking of persons before exploitation occurs? Second, how can States most effectively cooperate with the private sector to identify and address slavery-related risks in global supply chains?

Thank you, European Union. I pass to the United Kingdom, to be followed by the Islamic Republic of Iran. United Kingdom, you have the floor.

Thank you, Special Rapporteur. We welcome your recent report, which highlights the progress of international efforts to eradicate contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking and the ongoing challenges that remain. The United Kingdom remains committed to tackling contemporary forms of slavery, forced labour and human trafficking, and to protecting the rights, dignity and freedom of all people. We recognise that contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking continue to have a devastating impact on individuals across the world. We share your concern that increasing global instability, climate change, conflict, displacement and humanitarian crisis continue to heighten vulnerabilities to exploitation and trafficking, particularly for children. We recognise the importance of placing survivors at the heart of efforts to tackle contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking. The UK is committed to ensuring that survivors remain at the core of shaping our responses to modern slavery. Survivor-informed approaches are essential to developing effective responses to exploitation and trafficking. This is a global challenge that transcends borders, economies and societies, and no country is immune. Special rapporteur, what practical steps can Member States take to better address the factors that increase vulnerability to contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking in persons, whilst ensuring that survivors remain at the core, shaping prevention, protection, and accountability efforts. Thank you.

Thank you, United Kingdom. Islamic Republic of Iran, followed by the Syrian Arab Republic. Iran, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Combating contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking in persons, including the trafficking of women and girls, requires the international community's sustained commitment to the effective implementation of legal obligations and the strengthening of prevention and accountability measures. Despite significant progress over the past century, millions of people continue to be subjected to various forms of exploitation, including forced labor, slavery, and trafficking in persons. Poverty, discrimination, lack of awareness and education, armed conflicts and humanitarian crises are amongst the factors that heighten the vulnerability of individuals, in particular women and children. Trafficking in persons is often enabled and protected by complex networks that possess significant political, financial and media influence. The case of Jeffrey Epstein stands as a shocking example of this reality. For years, this nefarious network treated young girls and women as sexual commodities for the benefit of individuals with power. Despite repeated warnings, it operated with impunity for a long time. I would like to ask the Special Rapporteur about the practical measures possibly taken to address such cases, identify the victims and survivors, and to document their observations and sufferings, as well as to hold the perpetrators accountable. Thank you.

Thank you, Iran. I pass to the Syrian Arab Republic, to be followed by Algeria, then China. Syria, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

We thank Mr. Watts for her presentation, and we confirm our support to her mandate. We join the statement delivered by the Republic of Korea on behalf of the Group of Friends for Combating Technology-Facilitated Trafficking in Person. Mr. Chair, not too many years ago, a criminal regime transformed Syria into a hub for organized transnational crime, including drugs and trafficking in persons. The liberation of Syria in December 2024 marked a new chapter in its history. The new Syrian government affirmed that combating trafficking in persons is an essential component of the process of rebuilding state institutions. strengthening the rule of law, and protecting human rights. Though the legacy of past, of the past is not light, the Ministry of Interior had to be rebuilt from scratch, including the department to combat trafficking persons, which was launched in November 2025. We adopted a national action plan to combat the trafficking in persons that focuses not only on advancing law enforcement and accountability, but also on victim protection, which constitutes a central pillar of the national response to trafficking in persons. This strategy led to the successful dismantling of more than 90 transnational criminal networks with more than 700 investigations launched since December 2024.

In conclusion.

Syria expressed its readiness to cooperate with relevant international partners, including the UNODC, INTERPOL, to combat transnational crime, including trafficking in persons, through capacity building, exchange of information and expertise, development of.

I thank the Syrian Arab Republic. I pass to Algeria, to be followed by China. Algeria, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. 100 years after the adoption of the 1926 Slavery Convention, slavery and trafficking in persons remain persistent scourges and a stark reminder of the need for renewed and sustained efforts to combat them. Algeria considers the fight against trafficking in persons a national priority, requiring a comprehensive response that combines legal safeguards, victim support, and international cooperation. At the legal level, the 2020 Constitution established a clear constitutional basis for combating human trafficking, degrading treatment and torture. This framework was further strengthened by the law on the prevention and combating of trafficking in person in 2023, as well as an executive decree in January 2026, which formally established the national mechanism for the protection of victims of human trafficking. Algeria has also established a specialized national committee and introduced measures to facilitate victims' access to medical, psychological and social assistance. Moreover, a dedicated fund for the assistance and support of victims of trafficking in person has been established. Capacity building is also a key priority for Algeria. Specialized training is provided to law enforcement services, judicial authorities, social workers, journalists, and other relevant stakeholders with the view to raise awareness and address this phenomenon. To conclude, Mr. Chair, Algeria will continue to support efforts to prevent and combat slavery and trafficking in persons while strengthening international cooperation to address all forms of exploitation. I thank you.

Thank you, Algeria. I pass to China and then the Sovereign Order of Malta. China, you have the floor.

Mr. President, Mr. Chair, China notes the report of the Special Rapporteur and reviews the efforts of the international community over the past period to eliminate slavery and trafficking in persons. Contemporary forms of slavery and trafficking in persons seriously undermine human rights and requires a multi-pronged approach, including promoting economic social development, upholding fairness and justice, improving assistance and resettlement, and strengthening international cooperation to address both the symptoms and root causes. China supports stronger international cooperation while respecting the judicial sovereignty of the countries concerned to investigate and punish trafficking in persons. Countries of origin, transit, and destination involved in trafficking in persons should all act to effectively fight relevant transnational crimes. Relevant UN agencies should strengthen monitoring and analysis and provide professional support for combating trafficking in persons targeting refugees affected by conflict. The Chinese government has consistently combated all forms of slavery and trafficking in persons, improved its legal framework, established a state council in inter-ministerial joint conference mechanism with focus on crimes such as human trafficking and forced labor and protected people's lawful rights and interests. I thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, China. I pass to the Sovereign Order of Malta, and then I pass to Belarus. Sovereign Order of Malta, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Despite the international community's comprehensive framework to combat slavery and trafficking in persons, Countless individuals remain beyond the reach of protection. Exploitation often flourishes where conflict, displacement, poverty, and marginalization make people less visible, while fear, lack of information, and distrust of institutions prevent victims from coming forward. The first challenge, therefore, is to see those who remain unseen. A person who is never identified cannot access protection. A victim who is never heard cannot access justice. For the Sovereign Order of Malta, reaching the vulnerable and forgotten lies at the heart of our humanitarian mission. Identification requires cooperation among healthcare workers, humanitarian personnel, civil society, community leaders, and public authorities. Prevention must also extend into communities through education, awareness, and access to essential services. Mr. Chair, we urge Member States to strengthen the identification of vulnerable people, ensure meaningful protection and recovery for survivors, and build partnerships that reach beyond formal systems. Our commitment must be measured not only by the instruments we adopt, but by whether they reach those who remain unseen. Combating contemporary slavery means affirming the dignity of every person and leaving no one beyond the reach of our collective protection. I thank you.

I thank the Sovereign Order of Malta, and I pass to our final intervention from the floor. Belarus, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Madam Special Rapporteur, with regard to the cynical accusations of Latvia that we are instrumentalizing migration, migrants and refugees previously transited through Belarus, and previously we had arrangements with border states and there were no issues. It was not us who put an end to that cooperation, but certain neighbors due to political considerations. So accusations against Belarus are absolutely baseless. Belarus provides full access to various specialized agencies such as International Red Cross, the UNHCR, and others. We swiftly bring assistance to victims and migrants when it is possible. And we not only open, we take active efforts to control migration flows. Over the past five years, we have shut down 130 illegal migration channels, and we have detained over 100 organized and over 1,500 illegal migrants. This would be even more effective if not for the inaction or obstruction of certain neighboring countries. We call on countries who politicize the suffering of migrants to return to compliance with international law and engage in good faith cooperation and act professionally. Thank you.

Thank you, Bilorus. It's now my pleasure to revert to the Special Rapporteur for any responses or further comments. You have the floor.

Thank you, honourable Chair, and thank you all for the important contributions made to this constructive conversation. I'll take the issues raised thematically as much as possible, and I welcome further engagement with all states and particularly would like to call on states to respond favourably to country visit requests. I have issued over 30 country visit requests and have yet to receive a favourable response, so I particularly emphasise the importance of country visits as a mechanism for constructive engagement and dialogue with the important work covered by this mandate. I welcome particularly recognitions by several states of the importance of survivor engagement and expertise in developing national responses to combating slavery and trafficking in persons. It's critical in this conversation that we shift from understanding survivors as offering only testimony and stories of trauma to understanding that survivors can offer indispensable expertise to help shape our response to slavery and trafficking, making those responses more nuanced and more sensitive to the nature of the issues, particularly as they evolve at such a rapid rate. And that is true across sectors. It is true at all levels of anti-slavery and anti-trafficking work and at all stages in the process. And that requires long-term and sustained commitments at the national level and on the ground. And states here have a critical role to play, as we've heard, in supporting the work of survivor networks and survivor-led organizations, but also in establishing national survivor councils, establishing consultative architecture for survivors to be engaged meaningfully in the development and implementation of legislation and policy in this space. And survivors' expertise can be particularly valuable when we understand the required and very difficult systems work required for prevention. We need to shift from a reactive approach to slavery and trafficking to a much more proactive approach that recognizes the complexity and intersectional nature of these issues. If slavery and trafficking were problems that were easily contained and solved, we would have contained and solved them centuries ago. So it's critical that we recognize that these issues are interrelated and intersect with a wide range of social, cultural, economic, and development challenges affecting countries in various different ways around the world. And in this context, the lead up to the 2030 goals and the reconsideration of our global development agenda provides an important moment for reflection on the ways that slavery and trafficking may be embedded more effectively for the future in an intersectional and interrelated development agenda, and I encourage all states to particularly particularly consider the ways that slavery and trafficking efforts may be mainstreamed across all aspects of development agendas, shifting to a more coordinated, regional, and route-based approach to combating the issues which are often transnational in nature, whether through the operation of transnational criminal networks and groups, or through the interrelated and transnational nature of global value chains. And the system change work requires more than thinking about systems. It requires us to mainstream serious consideration for how to tackle slavery and trafficking across all the areas of governance and policy and programming into which slavery and trafficking face and with which they interrelate. That requires considering how robust labor systems, labor rights, and decent work can build resilient systems that help us prevent exploitation scaling up our labor rights response. It requires a more thoughtful implementation of humanitarian and crisis response that identifies and mitigates slavery and trafficking risks that exist in crisis setting. It requires us to look seriously at our migration governance frameworks and understand the ways in which those frameworks may be driving opportunities for perpetration and vulnerability among displaced and migrating populations, ensuring that mixed migration flows are not homogenized and that people's rights to protection in these contexts remain recognized and fulfilled. And it also requires facing into systems that may be less immediately obvious for those thinking about slavery and trafficking issues. Means thinking about the ways that trade policy impacts slavery and trafficking, the way that investment regulation, business and human rights frameworks, environmental regulation, health and housing policy, impact on resilient systems that protect people from slavery and trafficking before they ever take root. And that feeds in also to the question of early identification. And in that context, we have to ask ourselves, where does early identification happen? Because it does not happen at a police station, it happens in a school, it happens in a hospital, it happens in a doctor's office, it happens in communities. And all of of those actors working across systems need to be capacitated in order to identify slavery and trafficking risks and to respond to those risks when they emerge. That whole systems response needs to cut across more than criminal justice. It needs to cut across education, health, and housing systems. It also critically needs to cut across the business and human rights and corporate regulation response, because an estimated 85% of global forced labor occurs within the private economy. That makes the private sector a crucial and yet historically underutilized piece of our anti-slavery and anti-trafficking response. And in this context, establishing robust regulation, mandating human rights and environmental due diligence of corporations is a critical piece of the puzzle. We have seen through the history of this space that corporations at large will not sufficiently respond to the risks of forced labor, slavery, and trafficking in their operations and supply chains if they are not mandated to do so. Moreover, the floor created by the worst behaving corporations in systems that aren't sufficiently robustly requiring human rights due diligence are also hampering the action of the best actors within those systems. So we need to raise the floor in order to raise the ceiling on business responses to slavery and trafficking risks in operations and supply chains. And that needs to extend to the regulation of finance and investment, a space that has historically been underutilized, but where important developments have been emerging in recent years. We speak of emerging developments. It's important to highlight, as many contributions did today, the impact of rapidly evolving technologies on slavery and trafficking risks. We see perpetrators taking advantage of new technologies at a rapid pace, and unfortunately, too often, our response falls behind the pace of change of traffickers and perpetrators. What can we do to respond to those risks is engage technology companies at the outset and building safety by design into those platforms and into those systems. And yes, that requires a level of mandated response from those companies in the same vein as corporate regulation broadly must be required, but it also requires constructive engagement to understand what safety by design looks like as new technologies develop and particularly before they ever launch to ensure that they are not utilized by perpetrators to exploit some of the most vulnerable people in our societies. Lastly, to reflect on accountability. We need to reckon with the widespread impunity that has existed in relation to slavery and trafficking historically and continues to exist today. In 2021, an estimated almost 50 million people were subjected to modern slavery in our world. And yet in that same year, across the world in every country, only 55,000 identified trafficking victims were recorded through formal justice systems. That is less than 0.1% of potential victims of trafficking ultimately making their way into a formal identification process. And when we flow through the justice system, we see even for those victims that ultimately are identified, only one perpetrator is convicted for every 13 victims identified. We have a massive accountability gap in relation to this issue. And that's particularly true when we go further up the chain in transnational criminal networks. It's critical in this context that we're not seeking to only prosecute and convict the most simple cases to meet quotas, but that justice systems are pursuing the hard cases, pursuing accountability at the highest level, including responding to official complicity where that exists. All of this starts with legislation. We have not yet seen robust, effective and comprehensive legislative frameworks for governing all aspects of these issues everywhere in the world yet today. And particularly one aspect of this issue that must be the focus of attention as we move forward is the non-punishment principle and the protection of victims of trafficking from penalization for acts committed as a direct consequence of their trafficking experience. And that is particularly critical as we see the rising patterns of online scamming and forced criminality in this space. We must ensure that victims of trafficking and survivors of trafficking are not penalized for the acts that they committed as a result of their trafficking experiences, and that they are instead protected as they have every right to be so. I look forward to further constructive engagement with States on these important issues and welcome ongoing attention on these issues. Thank you.

Thank you, Special Rapporteur. And I now have great pleasure in moving to our next presenter, who is the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Ms. Alexandra Xanthaki. And we're very glad to have you here. You have the floor.

Good afternoon. Colleagues, the report that I would like to present today is on assessing the implementation of cultural rights. Mr. President, distinguished delegates and colleagues, this report focuses on one important question: how can states evaluate the implementation of cultural rights at the domestic level? The report's principal contribution is to establish a practical connection between the normative recognition of cultural rights and their implementation. It is not understatement to say that although human rights face today a crisis, we have seen an explosion of cultural rights. They have become central in important debates from which they were traditionally absent, such as in the discussions on development, the discussions on peace, and the use of machine learning. They attract the interest of states and the civil society who have understood that they are key in pursuing equality and social justice, and they impact the lives of individuals and groups every day. So how do we translate these rights into measurable governmental responsibilities and practical policy commitments? This is what states have been asking the mandate for some time now, and this is what the report is about. The report does not propose new rights. Rather, it gathers all the relevant standards and puts together a guide on which data to provide in order to assess the implementation of cultural rights obligations. The proposed set of indicators is a list that governments, civil society organizations, and human rights institutions can use to assess progress, expose shortcomings, and establish priorities. The methodology that I have used is that of the human rights indicators developed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which includes structural, process-oriented and outcome indicators. All three categories are necessary. Very often when I visit States, they talk to me about the constitution and the legislation that establishes cultural rights, however it recognises cultural rights, however it is important how these are implemented on the ground. There are fantastic initiatives at the moment that have been very relevant to this exercise and have been very helpful. My report, the difference in my contribution to the debate is that I wanted to focus on cultural rights indicators rather than indicators for the protection of culture more generally. So not culture indicators, but cultural rights indicators. Hence, these indicators shift the attention from protecting cultural assets to protecting the rights to these assets. So in order to assess whether a state complies with its cultural rights obligations, one has to gather data first on legal recognition, equality, and cultural diversity. So has the state ratified relevant international treaties? Are cultural rights constitutionally recognized, not the value of culture, cultural rights? Are cultural rights justiciable that we see more and more in domestic levels? Have they established effective legal remedies, the states, and created institutions responsible for implementation? Is there a ministry for culture or a ministry for cultures together with other ministries, for example, family? How many libraries, archives, museums, theaters, cultural centers, sports clubs are there in the country? But most importantly, where are they? Are they in the capital or are they also in minority areas or in rural areas? What is the share of the annual national budget dedicated for culture and sciences? this is indicative, but where exactly does this budget go to? In which areas of the state and for which type of cultural activities? The second aspect is that cultural rights indicators focus on is the artistic, academic and scientific freedoms, of course, at the core of cultural rights. And of course, the report has several indicators, but I want to focus on the outcome indicators. So reported cases of censorship or interference by the state or other actors in the freedom of artistic freedom, also in the freedom of academic and scientific freedoms, including with regard to the institutional autonomy of universities, an issue that we see a lot these days. Also the number of artists, scientists, and academics in prison. proportion of cultural workers in informal or precarious employment that are not covered by social security benefits? Do artists have the possibility of mobility and cross-border creativity? The number of research institutions per capita. Artists in the composition of national and local artistic boards and forums, so basically in positions of authority rather than experts or civil servants. Percentage of female scientists and scientists from marginalized communities. And I think that a lot of states will find it difficult to gather these data, but I think that what is not really understood by several states is that when we talk about cultural rights, we also talk about cross-section themes. So respect for a general human rights framework is important. So number of registered or active NGOs, evidence of freedom of expression, assembly and association, the general human rights context is important, not only at the national level, but also at the international level. And for this reason, I want to unequivocally condemn the US government's sanctions against the International Criminal Court, as well as the prolonged sanctions against ICC judges and the Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Francesca Albanese, and the increasing attacks against special procedures more broadly. These actions violate international law, undermine the core integrity of the UN human rights system, including special procedures as a whole, and affect cultural rights, the right of everyone to their ways of life, to their opinions, and to their freedom. And I call on you, talking about cultural rights indicator states, to decisively reject and speak out and refuse to enforce these sanctions. And I urge the United States to immediately rescind them. In addition to artistic freedom, scientific freedom, and also the general human rights framework, it is important, I think I mentioned that, to mainstream cultural rights. We know now that cultural rights are wider than artistic freedom. At their core, cultural rights empower individuals and groups to express their humanity, their worldviews, and the meanings they attribute to their existence and development through various forms of human expressions. So it's about the peoples and individuals and groups' ability to develop, express, and transform their identities, participate in cultural life, and influence decisions affecting their cultural existence. So for this reason, states have to provide data on an evidence of integrating cultural considerations in other areas of public life and inclusion of cultural experts in various decision-making bodies. When the Department of Tourism takes decisions, do they have cultural rights experts? When we discuss extended impact assessment exercises for projects, do they include cultural rights considerations? These are some of the cultural rights indicators. Then we go to non-discrimination and cultural diversity. And here important questions are, again, the outcome, the proportion of population that report that they have been personally felt discriminated against or excluded from cultural life. the proportion of population who believe decision-making is exclusive or inclusive, and whether there is integration of past and living heritage of marginalized populations, particularly indigenous peoples, minorities, migrants, persons with disabilities, women, people living in poverty, et cetera. Language rights and intercultural education also has cultural rights indicators, very specific data. as well as participation. And I want the final word to go to participation. International law says that everyone has the right to participate, not access, participate in cultural life. So the report has a very long part on participation in cultural life and the indicators states should provide. These indicators are the start, not the end, but they form, hopefully, a substantive way for all of you to be able to ask questions, to assess the implementation of cultural rights at the national level. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Special Rapporteur. I have a number of speakers listed, and we have a 2.5-minute time limit for each speaker. The first group is Guatemala, Spain, Cyprus, and Russian Federation. Guatemala, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Guatemala thanks the Special Rapporteur for presenting her report and recognizes the work that she has undertaken throughout her mandate. Regarding the report, we highlight that the proposed set of cultural rights indicators is a tool for monitoring the implementation of these rights within states' legal, policy, and institutional frameworks. It also facilitates a more effective response to persistent gaps and challenges. Cultural diversity is a fundamental pillar of the state. In this regard, Guatemala has made gradual progress in adopting specific legislation and public policies for non-dominant population groups, particularly indigenous peoples, promoting social inclusion, non-discrimination, and full respect for human rights, including cultural rights. One example is the National Languages Act, which recognizes, promotes, and respects the languages of the Maya, Garifuna, and Xinca peoples. Language is a cornerstone of oral transmission and a key element of these people's cultures. In this context, Madam Special Rapporteur, Guatemala reiterates its willingness to continue sharing experiences and good practices that contribute to strengthening dialogue and advancing the promotion and protection of the cultural rights of all persons without discrimination. Thank you.

Thank you, Guatemala. I pass to the representative of Spain, to be followed by Cyprus. Spain, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Chairman. Spain aligns itself with the statement of the European Union, and we'd once again like to thank the Special Rapporteur for presenting her report on the assessment of the implementation of cultural rights. We agree that cultural rights have acquired increasing relevance over the last few years, and that their protection cannot be limited to the formal recognition of these rights in legislation. In this regard, Spain, over the last few years, has stepped up its commitment to the promotion and protection of cultural rights through the establishment of the Directorate General for Cultural Rights and the approval of the first Cultural Rights Plan 2025-2030, which is geared towards guaranteeing the participation and equal access to cultural life for all without any exceptions. We call for strengthening measures to guarantee participation, equal access to culture, protection of cultural and linguistic diversity and safeguarding cultural heritage. particularly focusing on people who are facing situations of discrimination or exclusion. Madam Special Rapporteur, what practices could you identify as the most effective ones to ensure that States achieve universal accessibility and inclusion of persons with disabilities in cultural life? Thank you.

Thank you, Spain. I pass to Cyprus and then the Russian Federation. Cyprus, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Cyprus aligns with the statements to be delivered by the European Union and by Italy on behalf of the Group of Friends of Culture. We thank the Special Rapporteur for presenting her report and reaffirm our full support to her mandate. We'd also like to express our sincere appreciation for her visits to Cyprus this year during Cyprus' presidency of the Council of the European Union. The promotion of culture, the preservation of cultural diversity, and the protection of cultural rights are essential not only to the fulfillment of individual rights and dignity, but also to fostering peace, stability, and social cohesion while contributing meaningfully to sustainable development. For Cyprus, culture in all its dimensions is deeply rooted in our history, identity, and collective experience. Accordingly, the promotion of culture and the protection of cultural rights constitute key national and international priorities, including within the United Nations. In this context, Cyprus is proud to be among the initiators and co-chairs of the UN Group of Friends of Culture in New York, as well as among the co-chairs of the Group of Friends of Cultural Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Geneva. Cyprus welcomes the report's efforts to develop practical indicators to assess the implementation of cultural rights at the national level. We believe that such indicators can support evidence-based policy-making, strengthen accountability, and help States identify gaps in the fulfilment of their obligations under international human rights law. Particular attention should be given to ensuring that cultural rights are enjoyed equally by all, including persons with disabilities, and that they can participate fully and meaningfully in cultural life. Madam Special Rapporteur, how can the proposed indicators better capture the barriers faced by persons with disabilities in assessing and participating in cultural life and help states assess progress in ensuring accountability, inclusion, and equal opportunities for their meaningful participation in cultural activities and the development of cultural expression. I thank you.

Thank you, Cyprus. I pass to the Russian Federation, to be followed by Cameroon. Russian Federation.

Ms. Pajin, please.

Mr. Chairman, we have carefully studied the report of Ms. Zantaki assessing the implementation of cultural rights. We agree that the recognition of cultural rights is meaningless if people are unable to exercise them. In Russia, ensuring the right of everyone to participate in cultural life is one of the priorities enshrined at the constitutional level. Throughout the implementation of the flagship national project entitled Culture, thousands of libraries, cultural centers, children's art schools, and municipal museums have been modernized or newly opened throughout the country. As part of the implementation of the national project Family, funding has been allocated this year for the creation of hundreds of innovative children's cultural and educational centers. As part of measures to preserve historical identity, 29 major cultural heritage sites were restored over the past year. Since 2021, The Pushkin Card program has enabled more than 10 million young people to purchase or obtain rather tickets to theaters, museums, philharmonics, libraries, and screenings of domestic films at the state's expense. State digital platforms continue to be developed, including one entitled Artifact, which is an interactive guide to museums and exhibitions using augmented reality technology, which allows for museum collections to be explored from anywhere in the country. Through our virtual concert halls project, residents of small towns and remote regions are provided with the opportunity to listen to concerts via live broadcasts or high-quality recordings. We are ready to share our experience in ensuring and monitoring cultural rights in practice. Thank you.

Thank you, Russian Federation. I pass to Cameroon, to be followed by Cuba and then Italy. Cameroon, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. My delegation welcomes Special Rapporteur Zanta Key and takes note of her thematic report on cultural rights indicators. As a nation boasting a rich mosaic of over 2,150 ethnic groups, Cameroon view cultural diversity not as a point of fracture, but as the bedrock of our national unity. My government remains deeply committed to implementing constitutional guarantees that protect our dual linguistic heritage through the National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism. Cameroon continues to actively promote the equitable use of both official languages across our educational, administrative, and legal spheres, while ensuring the preservation of local and indigenous cultures.

Mr. President, Chair, while guaranteeing that all citizens can fully participate in cultural life, Cameroon stresses that the implementation of cultural rights must take place in full respect of territorial integrity and national sovereignty. Likewise, the collection of data and the definition of indicators must remain processes that are handled by the state in order to avoid universalist measures that do not take into account the nuances of socio-cultural contexts that are often complex. We therefore ask the Special Rapporteur, how can the indicators that she proposes better account for the challenges facing developing states or external actors and asymmetric security crises that are deliberately instrumentalizing cultural and linguistic differences to undermine state stability. How can these measurement tools help states promote cooperation while respecting local diversity? Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Cameroon. I pass to Cuba to be followed by Italy. Cuba, you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Chairman. We welcome the Special Rapporteur and we reiterate our support for her mandate. We appreciate the presentation of her report. In Cuba, access to culture is a collective right for everyone. Cultural rights are reflected in our Constitution. We have adopted a cross-cutting approach to culture in our National Development Plan. Cuba Cultural Development Plan, which is coordinated by the Ministry of Culture with the participation of other bodies, promotes citizens' participation in cultural life. It focuses on development, preserving artistic capacity and promoting cultural values, as well as protecting our national heritage. Nevertheless, our efforts to do these things are being seriously affected by the economic commercial embargo imposed upon Cuba by the government of the United States, which has been going on for some 60 years. This has recently been ratcheted up with the executive order of the 29th of January and the 1st of May, which have only ratcheted up the sanctions imposed upon our country. These illegal measures hinder Cuba's cultural development. We therefore invite the Special Rapporteur to study the impact of the application of these illegal measures by the United States and the impact that they have on the enjoyment of cultural rights for our people. Thank you.

I thank Cuba. I pass to Italy, then Malaysia. Italy, you have the floor.

Madame Special Rapporteur, on behalf of the Group of Friends for Culture, I thank the Special Rapporteur for a timely and valuable report. We fully recognize that cultural rights are an integral part of universal human rights and are essential to human dignity, participation and inclusion. We must ensure that culture remains high on the global development agenda. The report's focus on indicators is therefore particularly important. As long as been recognized since ancient times, the art of measurement is inseparable from the art of governance. Only by establishing a true measure can societies identify what must be protected and advanced toward the common good. Effective indicators can help governments monitor progress, identify gaps, and strengthen the integration of culture and cultural rights into national and global development agendas. In this regard, we welcome the report's emphasis on building on existing frameworks, including those developed by UNESCO, and those strengthening cooperation and knowledge sharing to avoid duplication and improve evidence-based policymaking. As we look towards the next stage in the post-2030 development agenda, robust evidence on the implementation of cultural rights will be essential to ensuring that culture receives the recognition it deserves within sustainable development efforts. The recent proclamation by the General Assembly of the International Decade of Culture for Sustainable Development offers a timely opportunity to take this work forward. In this context, I would like to ask the Special Rapporteur, how can member states best align national monitoring frameworks with emerging international work on culture indicators to ensure comparability, including with UNESCO's efforts to develop common methodology and metrics, while ensuring that these indicators remain adaptable to diverse national contexts and priorities and adequately capture both the quantitative and qualitative dimension of cultural rights. Thank you.

Thank you, Italy. I pass to Malaysia, followed by Papua New Guinea, Afghanistan, Greece, Azerbaijan, China, and Namibia. Malaysia, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Malaysia thanks the Special Rapporteur for her reports and for the presentations. Malaysia recognizes that the cultural rights are an integral part of human rights. As a multicultural and multireligious country, Malaysia attaches great importance to preserving and promoting its cultural heritage and diversity. We believe that respect for different cultural traditions languages and ways of life contributes to peace coexistence and strengthen the fabric of our society. Malaysia appreciates the special rapporteur works in proposing indicators for assessing the implementation of cultural rights. We recognize the value of practical tools that can assist states in evaluating progress, identifying gaps and improving relevant policies. At the same time, we believe that such assessment should take into account the diversity of national circumstances, cultural traditions and development priorities. Cultural practices and expressions are often deeply rooted in the historical and social context of individual societies. As the report itself acknowledged, These complexities cannot always be adequately captured through standardized or quantitative measurement. In this regard, they should consider it important that any proposed indicator remain flexible and adaptable to national context, while drawing upon existing international framework and avoiding unnecessary reporting burdens, particularly for developing countries. Mr. Chair, Malaysia welcome the Special Rapporteur recommendations that Member States should adopt the indicators to their national circumstances. This, however, require capacity. We therefore appreciate the Special Rapporteur view on how UN agencies could assist Member States in this regard. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, Malaysia. I pass the floor to Papua New Guinea to be followed by Afghanistan. Papua New Guinea, you have the floor.

Distinguished Chair, may I, on my delegation's behalf, thank Madame Special Rapporteur Ms. Alexandra Santaki's report and want to make some brief comments and pose a question. Chair, at the national level, our National Cultural Commission works with communities to safeguard traditional knowledge and cultural practices and help ensure heritage is passed to the next generation. We particularly appreciate the attention given to Indigenous and lesser-used languages.

For us.

The loss of a language can also mean the loss of not only our oral histories, traditional knowledge, cultural practices, but also our identity. An important part of our cultural heritage is the land and its ownership.

Our people own 97% of our country's land, which is their birthright.

In our Melanesian culture, land is part of who we are, connecting us to our ancestors and is sustaining our communities. Madam Special Rapporteur, in your report, it notes that 100 entities responded to your questionnaire. Could you share with us the level of contributions from the Pacific region, particularly Pacific Island countries and communities, and what key concerns from our region are reflected in the proposed indicators you have spelled out? Thank you.

Thank you, Papua New Guinea. I pass to Afghanistan, to be followed by Greece and Azerbaijan. Afghanistan, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. We thank the Special Rapporteur for her report. Cultural rights are part of human rights and must be respected. Afghanistan's cultural diversity belongs to its people. No illegitimate regime has the right to erase it or impose a single ideology upon our society. Under the Taliban rule, cultural repression is systematic. A wide range of cultural practices, artistic expressions, public gatherings, and traditional celebrations, including Nowruz and Yalda, have been prohibited or obstructed. Music is banned even at weddings, and musical instruments have been confiscated and destroyed. Artists and musicians face intimidation and the loss of their livelihood, threatening the preservation and transmission of Afghanistan's living traditions. Women and girls are excluded from secondary and higher education and face severe restrictions on cultural participation. Restrictions on women's singing silence their creative voices and impoverish our entire society. We are deeply concerned about restrictions on linguistic diversity and changes to public names and signage that marginalize communities, languages and heritage, imposing cultural uniformity deepens divisions, and undermines our shared identity. The expansion of Taliban-controlled jihadi madrassas raises serious concern about ideological indoctrination, promotion of extremism, and erosion of comprehensive education. Afghan youth deserve scientific learning, critical thinking, and respect for cultural diversity. Neither religion nor culture justifies intolerance or discrimination. All Afghans, including ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities must be free to shape cultural life. We strongly condemn Taliban's discriminatory policies and urge support for threatened artists, independent educators, and community-led heritage preservation. International engagement must not normalize these policies and must demand the reversal of cultural restrictions and women's exclusion. I thank you.

Thank you, Afghanistan. I pass to Greece, then Azerbaijan. Greece, you have the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. On behalf of Greece, I welcome the presentation of the Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights and to reiterate our appreciation for her work as well as our continued support to her mandate. Greece endorses the Special Rapporteur's timely initiative to examine the issue of assessing the implementation of cultural rights. The practical assessment framework she put forward directly responds to the repeated calls by States for concrete methods to evaluate national obligations under international human rights law, to measure policy efficacy, and enhance outcome-based accountability with respect in particular to cultural rights implementation. Greece aligns with the Special Rapporteur's emphasis that culture should rather be recognized as a living, historical, and evolving process with intrinsic and dynamic value, which requires moving beyond basic quantitative metrics in order to develop nuanced qualitative indicators. In this vein, we recognize the vital role that national human rights institutes could play in systematically identifying and collecting relevant data to monitor core obligations regarding cultural rights. Madame Special Rapporteur, regarding the operationalization of the assessment framework you propose, could you elaborate further on effective data collection methodologies? In light of the relevant challenges across diverse domestic contexts, what positive practices could you share regarding how national statistical institutes can best collect reliable qualitative data without rigidifying the dynamic nature of cultural rights? Furthermore, turning to long-term governance, we note your remark on the necessity of ensuring that the post-2030 sustainable development agenda includes a dedicated stand-alone goal focused on culture and cultural rights, safeguarding both cultural resources and the right of all individuals to freely participate in cultural life. In this respect, what concrete strategies and good practices would you recommend to states for leveraging the proposed cultural rights indicators, not only to monitor national progress, but also to build global consensus towards securing such a standalone goal? Thank you very much.

Thank you, Greece. I pass to Azerbaijan to be followed by China and then Namibia. Azerbaijan, you have the floor.

Mr. Chair. Cultural rights are an integral part of human rights, which are universal, indivisible, and interdependent. Promoting and protecting these rights are essential to preserving diversity within societies and enabling everyone to participate in cultural life. Azerbaijan is a multicultural and multiethnic society committed to upholding cultural rights without discrimination as an integral part of the broader human rights framework. The Constitution and relevant international agreements provide sustained guarantees for the realization of these rights in the country, Mr. Chair. The state policy in the field of culture aims to create, identify, preserve, develop, and promote cultural heritage and cultural assets. Everyone is entitled to protect their national and cultural distinctiveness, define their cultural identity, and freely choose their spiritual, atheistic, and other values. Culture plays an important role in social cohesion. Effective measures are therefore needed to build and sustain resilient societies, particularly by promoting and respecting cultural diversity. As the common heritage of humanity, cultural diversity should be recognized and upheld for the benefit of present and future generations. Mr. Chair, situated at the crossroads of cultures and civilizations, For centuries, Azerbaijan consistently promotes cultural diversity globally as a source of exchange, innovation, and creativity. Notably, the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue, held as part of the Baku process, has been recognized as a key global platform for promoting intercultural dialogue. The seventh World Forum will be convened next week from 27 to 29 October in Baku, Azerbaijan, with six overarching objectives: reaffirming the power of dialogue, identifying and addressing fractures, promoting bridge-building initiatives, fostering a shared vision, strengthening partnerships, and empowering future generations. Mr. Chair, as a multicultural society, Azerbaijan reaffirms its commitment to preserving and developing different cultures as well as protecting historical and cultural monuments within its territory, regardless of their origin or affiliation. Thank you.

Thank you, Azerbaijan. I pass to China, to be followed by Namibia. China, you have the floor.

Mr. Chair, China notes the report by the Special Rapporteur of the cultural rights. Cultural rights are important and fundamental human rights. an important safeguard for the enjoyment of all human rights, China continues to improve its public cultural service system, vigorously develop cultural services and industries, and fully safeguards the cultural rights of all citizens, including special groups. In recent years, as China further improves cultural legislations, builds infrastructure for public cultural services, and increases investment in cultural development of the poor and ethnic minority regions, people have increasingly benefited from the full enjoyment of cultural rights and gained a greater sense of happiness and fulfillment. China will continue to promote cultural prosperity and enrich people's cultural life. Together with the international community, China stands ready to actively implement the Global Civilization Initiative, engage extensively in international cultural exchange and cooperation, and infuse positive energy for different civilizations to embrace inclusivity and mutual learning and tackle challenges together. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you, China. I pass to Namibia, then Morocco, and finally the European Union. Namibia, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. I have the honor to deliver the statement on behalf of the African group. The group thanks the Special Rapporteur for a report on how to assess the implementation of cultural rights, a question Africa has had to answer for itself. The Charter for African Cultural Renaissance sets the continental standards. Agenda 2063 promises an Africa with a strong cultural identity and shared values. The African Union has made the return of cultural property a matter of reparatory justice in its Decade of Reparations from 2026 and in the resolution this Assembly adopted in March. Any assessment of cultural rights that measures what a state does inside its borders and says nothing of the objects, archives and the remains held outside them will measure Africa against a standard it was never allowed to meet. The group also asks that assessment start from the way cultural rights are held on our continent, either collectively as well as individually. In languages the United Nations does not work in and in intangible heritage that no inventory captures, indicators built for the archive and the museum will miss the griot, the initiation school, and the harvest rite, and will record as absence what is in fact a different form of presence. The group supports the mandate and will support the resolution on cultural rights and cultural diversity at this session. The group's question is twofold, whether the guidance the Special Rapporteur proposes treats restitution and access to cultural heritage held abroad as an element of implementation to be assessed, and how states with limited statistical capacity are apply it without acquiring one more reporting burden in a treaty body system that as a secretary general reported last month is already unable to review the reports it receives I thank you Mr. chair.

Thank you Namibia I pass to Morocco to be followed by the European Union.

Morocco you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. The Kingdom of Morocco would like to thank the Special Rapporteur for Cultural Rights for her report on the assessment of the implementation of cultural rights. My delegation welcomes the efforts to look at the frameworks used as structural indicators for results. We share the belief expressed in the report that these tools should remain at the service of public policy without just being an accounting exercise. So their tailoring to national realities, which the Special Rapporteur herself recommends, seems to us to be a good use. Mr. Chairman, Morocco has enshrined cultural rights in our constitution. as part of the various identities in our country. This is a recognition that has been borne out in practice through the recognition of different languages in our country. And we also have a National Council for Moroccan Culture, which has been set up. This recognizes the different cultures and identities that exist in our country. These have now been recognized in our school curriculum as part of our efforts to protect our heritage. We have also collected data about linguistic practices, which has, and this is a progress that we present humbly as something that is a work in progress. We enjoy consistent dialogue with the various human rights treaty bodies. How, Madam, do you think States can be supported, particularly developing countries, in their efforts to collect qualitative data, working with UNESCO and national statistics agencies? Thank you.

Thank you, Morocco. And finally, European Union, you have the floor.

Thank you, Chair. Madame Special Rapporteur, on behalf of the European Union and its Member States, I would like to thank you for your presentation and assure you of our continued support to your mandate. In your report, you address the issue of determining effective ways to identify the state of implementation of cultural rights. As highlighted, such an assessment remains a challenge, especially taking into account that the intrinsic and dynamic values of cultural resources cannot easily be measured in terms of quantitative and qualitative data. For the EU, guaranteeing everyone's cultural rights and respecting cultural identity, as well as recognizing culture's full potential and putting it at the heart of relevant EU strategies, policies, action, and corresponding funding tools is imperative. Recent initiatives, such as the adoption of the Joint Declaration, Europe for Culture, Culture for Europe, by the European Parliament, the Council, and the Commission, as well as the adoption of the Strategic Framework Culture Compass for Europe by the Commission proved that the EU shares the view that meaningful assessment of cultural rights implementation is essential to translate commitments into measurable progress. Madam Special Rapporteur, your report elaborates on the use of a set of cultural rights indicators aimed at guiding, inter alia, the measurement of the efficacy and the planning of programs and policies in relation to the implementation of cultural rights. What assessment criteria should be put forward by the EU in the context of the preparation of the upcoming periodic report on the state of culture in the EU? What other specific tools could be employed in order for the EU to assess how policies, such as those related to science, health, environment, education, training and social cohesion, can foster engagement in culture and improve the quality of participation in cultural life across EU Member States? Could you share any good practices in this regard? I thank you.

Thank you, European Union. And with that, we've reached the end of our list of delegations seeking the floor. And I'm delighted to hand back to our special rapporteur for responses and comments. Thank you.

Thank you very much, everyone. And I am so glad to see that your statements indicated that you think that this report does fulfill a gap that exists. I do hope that you're going to take it into account when you create your action plans. The worst thing, and I reply here to the African states, the worst thing that I could see this report is to become yet another tick boxing exercise. We have enough of those. But what we really need is to, and I hope by this report, we all realized that when we talk about cultural rights, we don't talk about any fuzzy or vague category of human rights. We're talking about the one sixth of human rights, and we're talking about very clear, very specific obligations that the state has, and these obligations are covered by specific data that the state or the organizations for the EU have to gather, and they have to gather these by having participatory approaches. So hopefully there is no poor civil servant in the capital that is now going to have to answer to all these questions, But hopefully there would be boards and meetings and discussions at the local level, at the provincial level, at the and at the state level that are going to discuss these issues. Of course, I recognize and I recognized in my report that the state will adapt these questions and these data to the specific particularities that exist. But please, you know, I hope that I am not misunderstood. Yes, of course, kind of make it and shape it in a way that addresses the state's particularities, but the human rights obligations and the human rights standards are the same for everyone. Of course, the way these standards are implemented is up to the state. Also, I don't think that these situations, and I think that the participation part in my report addresses this, this exercise, and generally the implementation of human rights cannot be from top to bottom, but it has to be a bottom-up exercise. Several of you talked about the amazing work that you are doing in your states, and I have seen that, and I take note of that. Cuba, I also take note, and I follow very closely what happens with the external restrictions and also another state that talked about that, Cameroon, the external maybe restrictions and obstacles that you face. And I follow all this. However, what is important is that we recognize that cultural rights are not state rights. It is not cultural rights are not the rights of the state. I am not here to talk about how you're going to protect the culture of the state. I am here to talk about how the cultures of everyone are going to be protected. Usually, this means, of course, the mainstream culture of the dominant group, but mainly what we need is additional protection for the cultural resources and the cultural elements of the vulnerable, the marginalized, the indigenous peoples, the rural individuals, of the women, and also we have to see this intersectionally. So especially when it comes to disability and the cultural rights indicators, I would see that the emphasis would be on the on how the participation, the participatory approaches and the intersectional approaches are going to address the cultural rights of persons with disability. And I am very glad to say that my next report before the Human Rights Council is going to address just that, disability, cultural rights of persons with disability, and I'm looking forward the engagement of the State. If I can just talk about specific States and then I'm going to talk a little bit about themes. if I have the time. A lot of the states that talked about, you know, how they protect culture are states that have, to which I have sent communications, and I'm not going to start saying names, we don't have the time for that. And I think in general, you know, kind of in the human rights world at the moment, we don't have the time for kind of naming and shaming, but we have time to progress and push forward. But a lot of these states have had problems with artistic freedom, with people that have been artists that are being persecuted, with marginalized persons whose ways of life and values do not seem to conform to what the state believes is the required model way of life. So I think that what maybe you would like to do is to look at these questions, these indicators, with a critical view in your own domestic level and taking into account the particularities and the priorities that you have to try to use them as a tool to advance them. And I'm here talking about capacity building. I'm always here and I'm here to help. And if you approach me, you know, I can help with capacity building. But it's very interesting how beyond these walls, special procedures become more disengaged from states. So this is something that we can work with. At the moment, there is a fantastic discussion on culture as a standalone goal in the post-2030 agenda. EU, I would be delighted if EU states discussed how important cultural rights are for other goals as well. So how can we ensure that there is equality between genders if we don't recognize that this has to do with cultural values of different cultural frameworks. So really, culture as a standalone goal, something that the civil society has been wanting very strongly and has been fighting for very strongly for a long time, is something that we have to discuss and all promote. Culture cannot be used as an excuse for human rights, but culture is dynamic, evolving, and very powerful. And the people who inhabit in your countries perceive it as really part of who they are, their own identity. So they deserve to be heard. And finally, if I can talk about The Pacific group, you're absolutely right, the Pacific group has specific priorities and particularities. You can see that, yes, indeed, in the web page of the report, there are people and civil society that we have been listening very carefully from your part of the world. And of course, last year I was in Micronesia as an official visit. I was the first Special Rapporteur, hopefully followed by many, who has been to the amazing Micronesia. So So I did kind of, you know, take into account the lessons that I learned from the local populations. Finally, and I'm not sure how much time I still have, thank you. Finally, I think it is very important if we take one issue from the cultural rights indicators, this issue has to be participation. And I think that I still go to to discussions where the states focus on access, and access is not enough. So participation, there is a layered participation, you know, there is a meaningful participation that everyone should have. This means that they in the decision making, so everyone has to be in the decision making bodies, effective participation for minorities, so positive measures. free, effective, meaningful and informed participation for peasants, so other part of positive measures, and free, prior and informed consent for indigenous peoples, so when they say no, it means no. This has to be taken into account when we talk about the cultural life, but also the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has said, you know, when we talk in general using cultural rights, sorry, considerations and cultural methods appropriate and suitable for these groups. So I think that it is very important, you know, to have forums where all these people and also people with intersectional grounds for vulnerability or marginalization take part. When the civil servants go to the villages and hear from people, not through traditional leaders, not through provincial boards, but listen to the people. When they do have free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous peoples. When impact assessments, especially impact assessment when it comes to all projects, they do have cultural rights considerations, which sometimes at the moment they do not have. Participation challenges. Yes, the challenges are many, but there are no more than the challenges that other human rights have. We cannot deal with indicators just by just by quantitative methodology. We have to accept that, when we talk about human rights, the methodology that we adopt has to be qualitative as well. That is possible by listening to people. We have to ensure that we are not focused on protection of the culture of the state, but we are focused on protection of the cultures and the cultural frameworks that exist within the state. And we have to be tolerant, something that I think gradually is lost, tolerant to alternative cultures, cultures that we don't necessarily, and narratives that we don't necessarily like, but they have to be also in the public sphere. I don't understand when it happened that we have to have only one narrative and one narrative to exist about what happened in the past. I don't understand why only the winners have to frame the history books, and they don't discuss at all about the losers of the ethnic conflicts or about the vulnerable groups of the ethnic conflicts. So I think that these are history books and discussing about history books and cultural heritage, et cetera, are very much aspects of questions that the state or that they have to be asked within the state. My wish is for this list to be discussed at the national level and to be a tool for further discussion and further policies and practices. And hopefully all states here will use that to remember that when we talk about cultural rights, we don't just mean specific... areas that we have talked in the past, such as artistic freedom and cultural heritage. Finally, I think it is very important that in the post-2030 agenda, we do have culture as a standalone goal. This is something that several states, Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Mexico and other states, India, are trying to push forward, and I think that it would be wonderful to take a more central role. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Thank you, Special Rapporteur, and can I thank each of our Special Rapporteurs for joining us this morning, both your contribution and your responses. It has been a very engaging discussion. So much appreciated. Let me quickly touch on our organization of work. We will continue our consideration of agenda item 70, promotion and protection of human rights, and its sub-items A to D this afternoon at 3:00 p.m. promptly to hear statements by special procedures mandate holders and other experts and engage with them. Let me remind delegations that the deadline for the submission of draft proposals under agenda item 70 and its sub-items is 1pm on Tuesday 3 November. As all of you know, information on the work of the committee is available to all on the iGov site. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you so much.