 Welcome to today's IEEA webinar, which is part of the Global Europe series supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs. The series is intended to contribute to a debate on the EU's role in the world and Ireland's role in the multilateral system, especially since we became members of the Security Council on the 1st of January of this year. We are very privileged to have as our keynote speaker today, Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The High Commissioner will speak for approximately 20 minutes, and this will be followed by a Q&A session. You can join the discussion by using the Q&A function on Zoom, which you should see on your screen, and we would encourage you to use that function during the presentation as questions arise. Please identify yourself when asking a question and the organization to which you are affiliated. Feel free also to join the discussion on Twitter using the handle at IEEA. It is a great honor for me to introduce the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and indeed I don't think she needs much of an introduction to this audience. Michelle Bachelet has had a very distinguished career in her native Chile. She was a Minister for Health and later the first woman Minister for Defence in Latin America. She later attained the highest political office in her country when she was elected President of Chile on two separate occasions for the first time in 2006 and then later in 2014. In between those two terms, she was named as the first director of UN Women, an organization dedicated to promoting the rights of women and girls. Since her appointment in 2018 to the post of High Commissioner for Human Rights, she has been an outspoken and indeed a fearless critic of human rights violations around the world. Today, the High Commissioner will address us on the theme of protecting human rights with reference also and in particular to the Security Council. High Commissioner, you have the floor. Thank you very much Ambassador Mary Willand, colleagues and friends. I'm pleased to be part of this important discussion. The international community faces an alarming number of situations featuring acts that shock the global conscience. The narrative that countries publicly reaffirmed their commitment to human rights and take complete steps to effectively implement conflict prevention and response. Only a bolder or more determined approach by all multilateral institutions can meet today's severe protection challenges that of course has to include the Security Council. Although it is the primary responsibility of Human Rights Council promoting and protecting human rights is one of the best ways for the Security Council to achieve its mandate of maintaining international peace and security. COVID-19 continued trail of destruction threatens both development and peace and security, as it creates or amplifies grievances and tensions. And the Security Council has recognized the particularly devastating impact of the pandemic of countries affected by conflict and of course humanitarian crisis. My office has issued much material in various human rights dimensions of the crisis, including detailed COVID-19 guidance on civic space, detention, indigenous people, migrants, minorities, women, racial discrimination, LGBTI people, older people, people with disabilities, business and human rights, access to vaccines and a state of emergency. OTSR, OTSR's night to field presence worldwide have supported member states, civil society and national human rights institutions in implementing the guidance provided by the human rights system. The core message has been to be effective and response and recovery efforts must be grounded on human rights. The Secretary General's call to action reflects his deep conviction that human rights underpin everything that the UN does, and it is the responsibility of each and every UN actor. His transformative vision pursues real impact for people on the ground, drawing on the respective expertise of different field mission component. The call specifically identifies the importance of human rights analysis and information to the Security Council on current and potential human rights crisis. Currently in increasingly complex environments, the protection and promotion of all human rights behind the UN system together around the common approach to crisis from prevention to recovery and accountability. As a member of the UN Security Council, Ireland helps to shape the mandates under which UN peace operations serve. The country has shown its commitment to placing human rights and gender equality at the heart of all missions. Not only its own experience of conflict but also in long standing and proud record of continuous service in UN peace operations. I trust the country will remain a key ally of my office in the Council in areas ranging from accountability for violations for international humanitarian and human rights law to conflict related sexual violence, conflict space and human right defenders, and we're looking forward to continuing our cooperation. Their colleagues allow me to highlight three areas in which the Security Council plays a critical role in protecting human rights worldwide. First, when human rights violations amount to threats to international security and peace, it is the role of the Security Council to assume the leadership given by its mandate and act swiftly. The second area in which the Council has done so was by mandating peace operations to protect human rights. Integrated human rights components perform a central and unique role in efforts to monitor and report violations and abuses, advocate for remedies and strengthen institutions with forward looking activities. They are also critical to protecting civilians from violence by undertaking preventing and deterrence measures. My office is ready to provide the Security Council with the relevant human rights information that everybody needs to take timely and fully informed session towards its mandate to maintain international peace and security. Furthermore, we engage with Security Council members in order to integrate human rights to the UN peace and security agenda. We currently provide daily support to 11 UMP operations and special political missions including in strategic planning, policy and guidance development such as the human rights due diligence policy, as well as operations management and budgeting. With a strong backing of the Security Council, my office is engaging with regional partners to enhance international human rights and humanitarian law compliance by national, regional and international security forces. Our work also aims for the protection of civilians to be put at the heart for military efforts to combat terrorism. Because AHEL will support the G5 AHEL joint forces to operationalize a human right and international humanitarian law compliance framework. The objective is to help the force prevent, mitigate and address possible violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law during its operations. As part of the UN-AU partnership on peace and security, my office is also supporting the African Union's efforts to ensure that all civilian, police and military personnel serving in AU peace support operations to uphold the highest standards of conduct, behavior, integrity and accountability in the implementation of their mandate. Our 2021 priorities in peace operations include supporting the deployment of the UN Integrated Transition Assistant Mission in Sudan, UNITAMS, and upholding human rights in Afghan peace talks. Another important effort will be promoting human rights as a driving force for Libya's political process and ceasefire implementation and ensuring continuity of UN human rights engagement in the Democratic Republic of Congo throughout the drawdown of the UN mission monoscope. Last year my office released a study on the contribution of human rights components to the implementation of mandates of United Nations field missions. Through concrete examples in several countries, the study demonstrates how the work of these components improves the effectiveness of UN field missions. Their efforts include the support of the National Police in Haiti and in the Democratic Republic of Congo to reform the security sector in Somalia and to reconciliation efforts in Iraq, Kosovo and Libya. The study also highlights how important the components are in addressing new challenges as field missions adapt to a changing world. Center to all this finding is how human rights have become integral to the strategic objectives of field missions, acting as a force enabler across the missions mandate. Another fundamental role of the Council is to promote and support justice and accountability for atrocity crimes and other serious violations of human rights. This is particularly the case in context marked by deep rooted impunity. These efforts can take various forms from the referral on a situation to the International Criminal Court, as the case with Darfur and Libya, to the creation of specific international tribunals, as for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda to mandating UN peace operations to support national authorities in their fight against impunity. That can be done through the design and implementation of accountability and broader transitional justice mechanism, as well as reform measures to establish effective and accountable security and other institutions. The Security Council has also set up commissions of inquiries or requested the UN Secretary General to investigate allegations of gross human rights violation, for example, in the Central African Republic, Darfur and the DRC. The reports of such thorough investigations help lay the groundwork for further Security Council action and facilitate the fight against impunity. These investigations invariably find that structural impunity is a root cause and contributor to cycles of violence and severe human rights abuse. They emphasize how justice and accountability are critical to the resolution of conflict and necessity to be vigorously pursued in our collective best interest. Indeed, in creating investigative commissions and ad hoc international criminal tribunal, referring situations to the International Criminal Court and supporting domestic and hybrid justice mechanism. The Security Council has recognized the role of justice and accountability in addressing threats to international peace and security. Through these measures, the Security Council has strengthened international law itself, contributing to its understanding as the better for friendly, peaceful and respectful relations among states and between communities. It has also catalyzed the development of international criminal law into a cornerstone of our international legal system. In its resolutions, the Security Council has stressed the importance of accountability in preventing future conflicts, avoiding the recurrence of serious violations with international law and enabling sustainable peace, justice, truth, truth and reconciliation. And I'm quoting this quote from the Security Council. It has also specifically and rightfully emphasized that a comprehensive approach to transitional justice is a key component to sustained peace. These pronouncements of principle give me hope that disagreements within the Council regarding the question of accountability for serious crimes in specific country context, such as Syria and Myanmar and eventually be overcome. Just last year in February 2020, the Security Council held its first ever thematic debate on transitional justice. In my briefing to the Council at the occasion, I recognize the complexity of providing justice for victims and accountability for perpetrators of serious crimes under international law. We know that constructing a path towards sustainable peace and reconciliation through trust and understanding between former enemies, it is a difficult challenge. And transitional justice can also not be imposed from outside locally led and locally appropriate efforts have the best chances of success. Having said that the international community and the Council in particular must assist states in the comp in this complex processes. I mean, sharing experiences, mandating international support and encouraging the implementation of genuinely comprehensive approaches. So the Asian situation that can be for the Security Council are necessarily complex. There are no quick fixes discussions on how societies can embark on the long path towards justice are both legitimate and desirable. As long as they need for accountability and the urges of justice for victims are never questioned. Deferring views on processes should not lead to paralysis and inaction. It is crucial to give societies a chance to choose their own path. However, where domestic authorities fail on victims and survivors, and we're just before the most serious crimes under international law cannot be achieved locally. The international community must assume its responsibility. As many societies learn the hard way, a culture of impunity, where perpetrators are emboldened victim silenced and grievances nurtured, plus the seed of renewed instability and violence. And I say this from my own experience as a victim refugee, former head of state, and the UN High Commission of Human Rights. Dear friends, lastly, while they are indeed essential accountability actions are not a substitute for a fundamental principle. The best form of protection is prevention. This has been emphasized in the Secretary General's call to action for human rights as a system wide responsibility of the UN. The method for protection with being developed this year is of particular importance. It aims to articulate the common human rights ground UN vision and operational concept for prevention and protection. The two advantages between human rights development and peace have been reaffirmed in different UN resolutions, including the 2016 and 2020 resolutions of the General Assembly and Security Council on sustaining peace and Human Rights Council resolution 38 slash 18 and 45 slash 31 on his contribution to the prevention of human rights violations. It is crucial that human rights information analysis informed the work of a Security Council, the General Assembly and the Peace Building Commission in addressing current and potential crisis and conflict. This is also the case for the recommendation of the human rights mechanism. Human rights should be systematically integrated into existing mechanism for collective UN analysis and decision making. We need to decompose the competent bodies in a timely fashion. The state have a key role to play in ensuring a better flow of human rights information from the Geneva mechanism to New York. There are 71 countries that signed up to the Swiss initiated appeal of 13 June 2016 aim to put human rights at the heart of conflict prevention by ensuring better links between the Human Rights Council and the Security Council among other bodies. The Security Council is supposed to have the primary role on conflict prevention. The activities, however, often mean that it can be difficult for the council to discuss the situation of concern until they have reached such a point that prevention is virtually no longer possible. Information generated by the human rights mechanism at my office could be proven helpful. In that sense, it will be worth revising the 2016 initiative launched by New Zealand to create a safe informal space to discuss situations not on Council's agenda based on concrete factual, not on Council's agenda, based on concrete factual information and analysis on the secret area, which leads me to the importance of participation from civil society actors who bring direct knowledge of human rights and humanitarian challenges when addressing the Security Council. Resolution 2242 from 2015 has led to growing numbers of briefings from civil society representatives. This cooperation, however, has also led to reports of reprisals against briefings including threats and harassment, surveillance and physical attacks. My office has initiated the project to address this issue and we welcome the increasing pay attention paid by some council members. And from accountability to reconciliation to prevention, there are inspiring examples from our colleagues in field supporting new admissions. In the Central African Republic, the human rights component of Minusca, advice on the development of a draft transitional justice law, and provide documentation of human rights violations and possible breaches of international and international law by parties to the country. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, public reporting by the human rights component of Minusca, inform the mission's response to inter-ethnic tensions in Utility problems. It supported local reconciliation efforts by Congolese authorities and the investigation and prosecution of those responsible. As a new political process was launched in 2020 and the ceasefire began to take hold, the Security Council sees the opportunity to add the protection of women and children to unsmilled mandate. In Mali, the human rights component of Minusma and his partners continue trainings on human rights and the rule of law in efforts to combat terrorism. We conducted capacity building sessions for representatives of civil society, the fence and security forces, the Bar Association, the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court. In South Sudan, the human rights components of Unmiss has developed a data driven tool that enables it to identify real time critical hotspots and incidents requiring further investigation. To assess the impact of forced patrols on the protection of civilians. Furthermore, human rights are also at the core of effective peace building and therefore an important benchmark to inform the transition and draw down of peace operations. My office is uniquely positioned to accompany these situations. UN policy allows for our mandate to both focus on the most serious violations linked to the root causes of conflict and stability and to continue providing support following the closure of a mission. Friends and colleagues, human rights gaps from discrimination to poverty, to lack of access to social protection and basic services, threatened social cohesion and a root causes of unrest and conflict. In that sense, the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 in already vulnerable populations extremely worrying. The pandemic has the real progress in achieving the sustainable development goals and is producing even greater levels of inequalities worldwide. Among all challenges, these conditions also create an enabling environment for terrorism to take root. Advancing the SDGs and recovering better from this crisis into a more equitable and sustainable world will be critical to rebuild social cohesion and ensure the benefits of peace and development reach everyone. That will require reaching the three pillars of the UN, peace and security, sustainable development and human rights. At a time of multi-dimensional global and regional crisis, we need redouble investment in rural space international structures that serve the common good by identifying and addressing grievances before they fester into violence. Unresolved human rights issues result in a fragile, ultimately untenable peace. They have also intensified the impact in the COVID-19 crisis leading us to where we are now. Sustainable recovery, one that leads to a more inclusive, just resilient and ultimately better society can only be achieved with two major elements by protecting human rights and through international cooperation. And that is exactly the same case for global peace. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you very much for that presentation. I think it's very thought provoking, especially what you had to say about COVID and its impact on the human rights and especially on attaining the sustainable development goals. And also your focus on impunity and the question of justice is indeed something it's very welcome to hear it now moving center stage, and especially in the human rights area. Can I ask you a question in which I know you have a lot of expertise and that is particularly on the resolution 1325 Women, Peace and Security. Ireland has always been a very strong supporter of this resolution. You yourself will have been very familiar with it from your time as director of UN Women. It's not, if you like, a controversial issue at the Security Council. But yet, we see that women are not central to the peace building efforts, for example in the Yemen and women's concerns are were not immediately obviously been protected in the conflict in Tigray province. How can we strengthen the implementation of security resolution 1325. What would you think more could be done we've had the statements how to have the action. I think this is a problem with many resolutions if I, if I'm honest, there is much. I mean the negotiation takes a long time but the implementation. On one hand, let me let me let me make certain recognition because Security Council resolution 1325 I think it turned 20 years last year. I think significant changes in the UN works for international peace and security, and has had certain impact on peacemaking and peace building. Our research shows that participation of women on the frontline is highly correlated with a chance that a social movement will use nonviolent methods, and that it will succeed, even in highly aggressive context. In a simple way is good to have more women on conflict prevention and of course conflict resolution and so on. Progress in fulfilling the resolution 1325 as you have just rightly mentioned, has been exaggerating flow if you have led to slow between 1992 and 2019, when there was the 4% that women constitute an average of 13% of negotiators. 6% of mediators and 6% of signatories in major peace processes worldwide I can mention to you a little anecdote when I was at UN women. And we started moving and analyzing and pushing or incentivizing members to include more women as in those processes. The answer that I received was there are no enough women that with that capacity. So I said, Okay, let's do two things. And of course that was not true. I had meeting with many women who were very expert on all this. So we decided to first of all to create a roster of women with those capacities so when countries will have to define or the Security Council we will say look there is this roster, this group of women. On the other hand, it was decided to work with the different regions to, if I would say on capacity building and mentoring more women that did the job maybe on a ground level but to have all the tools that that are necessary for for doing those those work. In May 2020 another data 555.4% of United Nations military personnel and 15.1% of police personnel were women. And it's a very low increase if we compare it to the numbers in 2015 that was three and so from three we came to 555.4 and then for 10 we came to 15.1. And on the other hand, when I was once in Liberia, and there was this, if there was a mission still there, and there was this group of a platoon of women Nigerian soldiers. I mean, then to say we were celebrating the International Women's Day in Nigeria and I mean the enthusiasm of women to see women. I mean, it gives them the sense of empowerment, but also in many of the missions what we heard when I was a woman has been women many of the women's will dare to come to them to tell that they have been a subject of gender based by but also to tell them even where some non-state actors were hidden or where the weapons were so on so to be honest I said that it's not about having women, only women, it's about the contribution the women can bring. Another important thing of course is that you need women everywhere because otherwise the models are not there the role models, and you look at the representation of women in national parliament. It has increased yes 13.1% in 2000 to almost 25% in 2020. And that sounds okay, but if you look at conflict affected countries, the presentation of women in parliament is still low, so low is 18.9%. I would say still total bilateral allocable eight committed to support gender equality efforts in fragile conflict affected areas has increased. However, bilateral aid to women's organization has expanded at 0.2% of total bilateral aid. So, I think, if you ask me is the resolution 13.25 still relevant I think it's more relevant than that. So we must redouble efforts to implement that what can we do about it. I think we need to, to be able to show in a better way to member state how important has been the contribution of women, how the outcomes have been positive, interesting and sustainable. So also it's not only about women in the peace forces is also about the role that we will play at the ground at the field they are really, they really are the ones who sustained peace there. So how we can ensure on one hand, and to work with donors, for example, to provide more support to NGOs or civil society organization that on the ground are working to make 13.25. On the other hand, I think it's important as always to continue making reports on the, on the, on the implementation of 13.25. But I think it should be transparent and clear that there has been implementation that is so uneven and so slow. And I believe that you always have to show the cost of undoing things of not doing the right things. So if we could show example but really work and short sample when doesn't work. It will be very important to be honest, I, there was this last cyber talks. Women in the UN delegation have not been members of the nation so I think we need to continue for example preparing women that are interested in these issues and mentoring them and supporting them when they are at the country level and we just appointed a new special gender side. And at least she was a woman from Africa she was one of the women who work on peace, peace negotiations at the middle and ground level, and she had a great experience that I'm sure she will be able to provide also now a special potential gender side. Well thank you for that, which I think is some signs of hope in what is not a very hopeful scene. But can I, we have quite a lot of questions and I know we only have you on for another, maybe 10 minutes, 12 minutes. So I'm going to group a few questions together and the tone of these questions. To be frank, are from Irish NGOs, development NGOs, human rights NGOs who are very active in the field of development and human rights. And there is a common theme, which is a sense of really disappointment with the Security Council, especially in the area like in Myanmar. What can it what is it likely to do by way of effective action Syria quite a few questions on Syria. I think we all know what the difficulty is in Syria, but is. Any grants for hope that we can in any way alleviate the suffering of the people of Syria, and then a question in relation to human. The International Criminal Court, and really the problem dealing with the fact that many of the great powers are not signatories to the Rome statute and you outlining your presentation very much the role which the Council has at times taken in relation to referring cases to the ICC, but then there are the cases which are vetoed and are not referred by the ICC, not referred to the ICC by the Security Council. And then in responding to those three issues Syria me and our and referrals to the ICC and you have already spoken about civil society. But how do we mobilize more effectively as civil society to make sure some of these forgotten issues are really more center stage on the agenda of the Security Council. Well, I'm from the UN so I'm not going to give any for my personal opinion Security Council, but I think, of course, nobody's aware that there's a lot of situation Security Council that has made. That sometimes certain resolutions are do not include what everybody would like, or they are failed softer, or, and because I think, well, the, the situation of five countries to have the capacity of a veto. It's a real thing that in my country always were for a reform of the Security Council but that has not been able to happen because they have a bit of that veto the reform as well. So there has been a lot of conversation and discussion for so many years about these issues. So, of course, and the Security Council and the Human Rights Council. I mean, security piece human rights are very political issues. So many times it's very difficult to get into an agreement that satisfies everyone. So I would say, yes, I would have loved in Myanmar that it could have been discussed more as an important topic, more than any other business in that area on any other business. And I think there has been a solution. But of course, some people felt it was not strong enough. We have been working strongly on this and two weeks ago I had a lot of meetings with the, I mean, virtual meetings with the ambassadors of ACA because we were calling for, I mean, for the ACA leaders meeting to be able to. And to understand, and I know how ACA works, they are really, they were very consensus and of course inside ACA like in the international community like in the General Assembly, there are different positions on many of this conflict. And of course, I think, I think that one of the things on Myanmar, the ACA had a declaration they decided to put a special envoy, some people and people inside Myanmar are not happy because there was a discussion on the release of political prisoners. But, but at the end, they did decide to take action they did decide to discuss the issue and they're going to send a special envoy that I hope it could go with a special envoy the secretary general from Myanmar. And so they could really be able to talk to all the different parties. One of the things important things, not maybe in the Security Council, but maybe members they could do is try to get in touch with the, the new United Government, National Government, and also with the civil disobedience movement. Because one of the concerns that I have is that the civil society are very, very disappointed, but are very, very concerned and feel that the international community has left them alone. So it's so, I think they need the voice of the international community to tell them, you're not alone, we are working as much as we can, we try to do as much as we can. The other because you know the TACMA though I mean the Administration Council that they have created after the coup d'etat has defined that all NGOs international and nationals should be registered. So many has the real risk and threat to not be registered to not be able to receive funding so I think it's very crucial. In many countries, the recognition official recognition of the National United Governance impossible, but made, but still there's a lot of them they're talking behind doors, if I may say, and supporting them and knowing what they need. And then the same with the civil society organization and of course we need to insist and that was our main message is when discussing to all the ambassador to bring the message to capital to bring it hopefully to the discussion was to stop violence. And to of course release all prisoners and to try to restore a political dialogue that will mean possibility of going into a peaceful restoration of democracy and peace because one of the problems that I've seen. We don't have an office there we're not permitted to be there but we from Bangkok we have a lot of relationship with the people in Myanmar. And we do know that some young people because as you saw the beginning was all peaceful assemblies peaceful demonstration but when they started to be killed. I mean, last week we had 750 people we could verify with names who were killed and a lot of more than 300,000 500 detainees. And the thing is that many of them are starting to think look the peaceful way is not the way. So it echoes in some way the Syrian process being a different geopolitical situation. So that's what something that concerns us as well I mean concerns of the valuation of human rights on protesters on them on on on on on on demonstrators. But it also concerns that that they some of them could try to go into more violent ways, and some of them have already done, of course with very basic issues like explosive domestic process devices domestic homemade weapons, but also the protesters who have fought against the time amount of many years and some of them even they have ceasefire for more than 20 years. They have started again with our attacks against them. I mean, one positive outcome of all of this is that people on the street realize that it was not only about election. It was about reforming the constitutions because if they stay with the same constitution, they will never get rid of, you know, a military control over the democracy. They realize that they need unity that they need to think in all ethnic groups and for the first time, many of them have realized that what the Rohingyas have been saying was true because they said before they did not believe that. So that's the positive outcome. The national unity government does not have any Rohingyas inside. And that's not, and it's not involved yet with the armed groups but we don't know what will happen so I think it's very important for countries to engage with them and support them. Only on Syria. Yes, I mean we just had a couple of weeks ago, the celebration of the commemoration because there's nothing to celebrate on the 20th anniversary or since the, the Syria conflicts. And really, I was interviewed and somebody asked me, what can you say to the Syrian people. Can you tell them that this is going to be over tomorrow and I said no I cannot. I'm sorry I cannot. The only thing that I can do is to ensure that we are trying to do as much as possible and as office we are monitoring all the human rights violations and so on. And we are really concerned and tomorrow will be an activity on missing person because we really we need to find a mechanism to be able to know the whereabouts of the missing people in Syria as well. But I think we are in a very polarized world. I think this is much, much time more important than human rights. And that's what we live in and we need to find ways on how we can convince members state that need to take action that are central because of course, big powers are very important in all of this, that they took that action on it on the occasion of international criminal court. Well, it's true only the signatories of the wrong statute but on the other hand we have seen the case of Myanmar, for example, I know the case as well, but the concept of universal this jurisdiction is working so you can have to be honest, but there are other communals and other causes that can come to the, as the case of Myanmar that Gambia sent, you know, this request to the ICC, but also the, there are other other ways and because I mentioned that the ICC was one of the possibilities but not the only one. We cannot send it to the ICC, neither the Secretary General can send it to the ICC. It has to be the Security Council. But what can be done and we have done it in the Human Rights Council is to create commissions for inquiry, or to propose to the General Assembly to create an investigative commission like the one in Syria or like the one in Myanmar, because the commissioners inquiry do not have that they're not criminal investigations. They can provide a lot of information that we keep under security reasons. In the case there is a tribunal we can bring all this information because many of these commission inquiry do are able to receive information of perpetrators that could be accountable when there is a tribunal or the ICC or whoever thinks is important. But on this criminal, on this other investigative mission, these are have a criminal investigation and this can also be very important in terms of the results. But what can civil society do to be able to ensure that all of this is better implemented? Well, I think civil society sometimes feel, I mean, I know that during last years when there has been a backlash on human rights and particularly in COVID-19 context, there has been a shrinking space for a civic space, a civic space, a shrinking space for civil society, many human right defenders are attacked, but on the other hand civil society in democratic countries where they can really raise their voices, they need to raise their continue raise their voice. Need to build, if I would say, broader constituencies because if everyone works in silos, we're not going to have enough strength to make a difference. And need to support much more. And donors also need to support much more civil society at the country level because some of them because of emergency measures or as an excuse. And some because really they had to divert the money to COVID-19 medicines and so on. They took away the money they were giving nationally in some NGOs. So I think, but I think that's something that I always think when I go to any country and I see and I meet a lot of NGOs and civil society organizations, they're all into their own business. They're all LGTBI, women's issues, human rights or whatever. And I do, and that's correct and that's fantastic but we need also to understand that when there is a backlash on human right, we need to make our voice be stronger by maybe taking initiatives in common and making their voice be heard harder, sort of building greater constituencies. And the second thing is that if we only talk to the convinced, we are lost. And then when I have meetings with the civil society, always the convinced one in women's issue in human right in anywhere. And I think that's wrong. We need to reach out much more people and to include much more people on this fight for peace and security, human rights and development. Thank you so much, I commissioner. And I don't want to detain you. Will you allow me to ask you one question. Just very, very last, and it's the issue of climate change because too often it is the human rights aspect of that particular topic are ignored. Could I ask you just, however briefly you choose to do it, to maybe address what you would like the Security Council to try and achieve in this area from a human rights perspective. All the islands currently co shared with Mexico, the new informal Security Council mechanism that will look at this issue and I, I think that's a great opportunity to be honest but let me tell you something. Not only a Security Council that many people don't realize that there is an impact of human rights with climate change. When in the last couple in Madrid, I was invited by the biggest university to the medical school to talk about climate change and health and human rights. But to be honest, I'm a medical doctor so I could really move on those issues very well, but it was, everybody was completely surprised because they did not link human rights to climate change and to health. Because usually when we work in health, we know the right to help but we don't speak on the language of human rights so what I need to say is that I think we need to show better, which is the impact of a human rights and climate change. And I think for me it's clear that it has clear human rights implications. I think we need to bring the human right perspective when discussing climate security, but we need to show exactly how it works. And of course, I think, I think we should also try to build on the, how processes now are so intersectional. Because if you think on different aspects that are linked to human rights, but that also lead between them, for example, climate change with migration. Food insecurity. So there's lots of things that there's lots of different human rights are involved with this. And we see it in Myanmar for example now in Myanmar, the estimates are that almost half of the population will go into terrible food insecurity, because of the strikes because of the different situations. In Myanmar and we see the huge famine that is there. So, I think it's a real opportunity to make sure that human rights was earned, either through the participation of UN human rights organizations, and people who are present in the field, or through civil society and I think one possibility is when the island is in the presidency, maybe you could bring this topic on board. And of course, I have to tell you there's any discussion at the security council or even another formula, because, because sometimes when there are issues that are not really the ones who everybody wants to bring it to other formula, I'm willing, I'm willing to go to participate and try with concrete data, because I think many times people don't know the data, how is how it is impacted human rights, because of climate change. And for me it's obvious, for example, when you think on a small island, when the ocean has has gone up, and people has had to leave the coastal border, that their livelihood have lost their livelihoods, and then they have to go inside inland, where the way of living is our culture, and there have been fishermen for the whole life. I mean, you lose your livelihood, you lose everything, and then you have to adapt to a reality that is not linked when you know. So there's lots of things that can be discussed that I hope will help the security council to consider that climate security is also an issue of human rights. And if we want to prevent climate, more climate related conflict, we need to think on this. Let me give you our last example. Many of the people who are being migrants to the US from Central America. Many of them is because of climate change, many of the coffee plants has been destroyed. So they lost the jobs because they, so that's one of the reasons, of course, there are the reasons violence and so on, poverty, etc. But if we don't include climate change with the rest of the things but they're all into human rights implications, we will not be able to solve any problem because root causes are at the end, the root causes the drivers of conflict are inequalities and that is solely human rights. Thank you very, very much. Hi Commissioner thank you for your generosity with which you shared your time today and thank you for your offers to support and our work on the Security Council in that area of human rights especially and and also then climate and human rights. You're very inspirational I'm saying that genuinely and thank you and we look forward to maybe at a future post covert time seeing you again. Thank you so much. All the best for you and for all the ones who are following this seminar. Bye bye.