28 February 2011, Geneva;The Maldives' Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, H.E. Mr. Ahmed Naseem today addressed assembled leaders at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva and used the opportunity to welcome the spread of democracy across the Muslim world and to praise the bravery and determination of protesters in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and elsewhere "for asserting their fundamental rights and freedoms, and for believing in a better future".
Speaking during the Council's High Level Segment alongside US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, and other senior representatives of the world's governments, State Minister Naseem offered the Maldives' "steadfast support to our democratic friends in the New Tunisia and the New Egypt, and calls on the international community, led by the United Nations, to assist both countries at this crucial moment in there and indeed our common history".
"I have no doubt that from the pebbles dropped in the southern Mediterranean over the past two months; the ripples of democracy will continue to spread. The Muslim Awakening heralds the end of power of the few for the few, and the beginning of a new era founded upon universal values, individual freedom, and mutual respect and tolerance. The Awakening also puts to bed, once and for all, the notion that Islam is somehow inherently incompatible with human rights and democracy. Millions of Muslims around the world already enjoy democratic government, and, as we have seen, those who don't are willing to sacrifice all in order to assert their political rights".
State Minister Naseem went on to contrast developments in Tunisia and Egypt with those in Libya. "It is with deep regret that we watch as the largely peaceful progress of the Muslim Awakening is brutally checked at the gates of Tripoli".
"The Maldives strongly condemns the violence unleashed by the Libyan authorities against their own people - people who are merely trying to assert their universal rights. It is clear that gross and systematic violations of human rights have been perpetrated in Libya and that these in all likelihood constitute crimes against humanity".
The Minister declared that: "The Maldives, a fellow Muslim country which itself recently began the transition to democracy, refuses to remain silent as hundreds of our Muslim brothers and sisters are abused and killed". This is why the Maldives had helped lead international efforts in the UN Human Rights Council to protect innocent civilians in Libya and to hold those responsible for human rights violation to account. These efforts led, last week, to a strong UN Human Rights Council resolution against the Libyan authorities.
The Maldives' State Minister also used his address to call for a radical shake-up of the international human rights machinery to ensure that in future, the rights of people in places like Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Iran, and Myanmar are better protected.
Citing a founding premise of constitutional and human rights law - that there is no right without remedy - the State Minister asked assembled delegates to reflect on whether "the Human Rights Council and the Treaty Body system are capable, as things stand today, of enforcing international human rights law, of securing accountability for human rights violations, and of providing redress to the victims? In other words, are they able to offer remedy?"
If not, then Minister Naseem proposed that the Council is duty-bound to consider ways to strengthen accountability and redress, including by revisiting the idea of establishing an International Court of Human Rights - an idea first mooting in 1947 as the UN's founding fathers built the international human rights system.
Repeating an argument used by the founding fathers over 60 years ago, Minister Naseem reminded delegates that: "Either a full and effective observance of human rights is sought, or it is not. If it is sought, then the consequences of this principle must be admitted and the idea of compulsory judicial decisions must be accepted".
"Strengthening the human rights system is important, not only for the people in this room but also, more importantly, for the people on the streets today in Tripoli, for their neighbours in Tunisia and Egypt, and for all of us who have lived under oppressive regimes and have struggled to assert our freedoms" concluded the Minister.
ENDS
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