 This joint session is not only an occasion to celebrate the impact of the University of Human Rights, 70 years after its adoption, it is a step forward in unifying efforts and strengthening cooperation between the two covenants. And our voices will be louder if we are speaking together. You have helped abolish the death penalty and abandon austerity measures. You have led to the development of new human rights treaties. There were merely three fifty years ago and today there are nine core international human rights treaties. What all victims above all need to know is that they are not alone, that we're not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend to them ours. This is not a time for optimism. This is not a time for hope. This is a time, first and foremost, for courage. It is the principal's values and aspirations of the Universal Declaration, further materialised in the rights enshrined in our two covenants and the other core human rights treaties that need to guide states' parties if they want to guarantee what is unchangeable under all circumstances. And that is as relevant or perhaps even more relevant today than it was seventy years ago and that is human dignity.