 Colleagues and friends, I would like to thank, first of all, the Caro Institute for Human Rights for inviting me to join your very important forum. And I regard that as a tremendous honor, in fact. Human rights defenders are, almost by definition, incredibly brave and principled people in many places threatened and punished for their actions. But I would say that it takes a special degree of courage to be a human rights defender in the Arab world today. I'm sure I won't be the only one of your speakers to be referring to the symbolism of having your meeting in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab Spring. Nor will I be the only person to mention Jamal Khashoggi, who before he was so brutally murdered or executed, wrote in his final article that was published after his death that in a survey of all the Arab world, only one country could be classified as free, and that's Tunisia. And three others could be classified as partially free. The slogans that framed the Arab Spring and that guided its sparks from Tunisia to the rest of the Arab world and even beyond were first coined by Tunisian youths calling for an end to tyranny and a new era of freedoms. It was inspirational stuff, all the more so because it was so utterly grass roots in its nature and allowing the voices of those who had been suppressed for so long to shake the very halls of power. But where does the Arab human rights movement stand today as we mark the eight-year-old anniversary of Mohamed Bouazizi's astonishing and emblematic act of self-immolation? It's clear that the best answers to that question will be provided by local actors, notably yourselves, who owned that process for change and provided such a key role in it. But I would also like to mention the work of the office I work for, the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which has done what it could to support and accompany the actors in this process of change. Now, those initial calls for change reflected the universality of human rights. They were untainted by short-term political considerations and they focused on the absolute fundamentals, increased political participation, freedom of association and assembly, women's rights, an end to corruption and a fair distribution of resources and an end to Mohabar rule, torture and arbitrary detention. They covered the entire spectrum of human rights, civil and political, but also economic, social and cultural, and which reflects our belief in the fundamental indivisibility of human rights. Through our offices in Geneva, Tunis, Beirut, and in addition to various others, we have aimed to support local processes that would translate those changes into legislation that would be more in line with international norms. OHSHR has provided training to, where possible, to key segments of the government, including justice and security and police forces and women and children and youth. And it has supported various transitional justice processes which remain key to stability and assuring accountability. In Tunisia, important anti-discrimination legislation was passed just last month. And this is a pioneering example of positive change in a region that does provide us hope. And other important legislation ensuring and expanding protection of women is very commendable, too. But despite some progress in a number of countries in the region, there is still an underlying sense that the gains remain fragile and unsustainable in the face of strong forces. There, of course, remains stiff resistance to some of the tenets of human rights and the universality. And many countries and political parties do not feel comfortable yet engaging in implementing those principles, despite having ratified the various human rights treaties. Other forces continue to label human rights principles as somehow alien principles that are imposed by the West or as a conspiracy to undermine Muslim societies and their sustainability and sovereignty. Beyond these claims is an even more worrying sign that the security discourse seems to have come back in full force and is used to limit civics of space that was won by such efforts during the Arab Spring. And anti-terrorism legislation has unfortunately been used all too often as an obvious excuse to stifle dissent, criticism, and opposition. Now, we are seeing evidence of this in the many cases of individuals detained and tortured just for speaking out or others disappeared or killed. And some others are silenced by compromising their email and social media accounts or have had travel bans imposed on them. And some NGOs and human rights defenders have been explicitly labeled as terrorists simply for standing up for human rights and whether they are officially charged for terrorism or blamed for cooperation with foreign entities or accused of damaging the reputational security of the state. And we are seeing this as part of a dangerous, global trend to denigrate and to discredit human rights defenders such as yourselves. Also troubling is the fact that states increasingly invoke counterterrorism as the reason why an individual or an organization should be denied access to the United Nations whether for sharing information with us or for attending a UN meeting. In September this year, I addressed the Human Rights Council in Geneva to present the annual report of the Secretary-General on intimidation and reprisals for those who cooperate with the UN on human rights. And I highlighted this significant and growing obstacle. We have seen long-standing civil society partners, particularly in your region, placed on terrorist lists, become embroiled in bogus terrorist charges and have had their operations curtailed. At best, this is a distraction from the aim of promoting human rights. And at worst, it has resulted in a further shrinking of space for human rights defenders and civil society partners. And this has happened in Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to name a few. This year, I specifically mentioned the efforts to block the impressive organization Al-Qarami from participating at the UN. Last year, in my speech at the Human Rights Council, I referred to the specific case of an Egyptian human rights defender who was detained at Cairo Airport on his way to meet human rights officials at the UN and our fear that he was being tortured. Fourteen months on, he is still in prison. I also mentioned how since June 2016, Bahraini civil society groups attempting to cooperate with the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms had been interrogated, intimidated, subjected to travel bans, arrested, tortured and even sexually assaulted, causing, as it clearly was intended, an atmosphere of fear. We are also seeing... Forgive me, is that a feeling? A second trend, I mentioned the first, of the growing use of the term of terrorist silence people. The second trend is that reprisals, whether for advocacy generally or for speaking at the UN, are often disguised in legal or administrative obstacles and selectively applied laws and practices or new legislation that restricts the actions and the funding particularly of human rights NGOs is something that we are very worried about. So I think we should see the Arab Spring as a general movement, a yearning for rights of all kind, including the rights not to live under brutal but also utterly corrupt forms of governance. But though it was a general movement, it had profoundly divergent effects in different Arab countries. There can be little doubt that the initial slogans for equality and an inter-oppression found widespread echo among civil society actors and even some government ones and these actors have since then been working to lay the foundations for future progress. And I don't need to tell such a group of participants as you, quite how catastrophic the counter-reaction to the Arab Spring has been, whether in terms of total state collapse leading to civil war and serious crimes against humanity or war crimes, or whether we're talking about the harshest forms of repression, systematic torture or even mass death sentences that follow artificial trials. As you will be aware, we have a new High Commissioner for Human Rights since the beginning of September, Michelle Bachelet, the former President of Chile, and a longstanding and passionate advocate for human rights, as well as having somebody who has personally experienced dictatorship and violations herself. I have absolutely no doubt that she will do full justice to the extraordinarily impressive legacy of the former High Commissioner, Zeyd Rair al-Hussein, who with his courage, intellect and integrity was a, did himself, did our office a great service, did his own country a great service and indeed the wide Arab region. He took on governments, however powerful they were on the world stage, calling them out for having committed human rights violations. And for this, he was criticised by many governments from all over the world. But it seems to me that there was a special level of bituporation, criticism and hatred directed towards Zeyd by the governments of his own region. It was as if they seemed especially outraged that he, a fellow Arab, should dare to criticise them and that he, a fellow Arab, was supposed to close his eyes and silence his mouth, even when faced with some of the appalling crimes and violations carried out by Arab states. I am disappointed by their reaction and I have no doubt that you share that disappointment. I think it's very important to bear in mind, however, that the Arab world is far from alone in experiencing a profoundly alarming human rights rights situation. This includes other parts of the Middle East and North Africa region. In Israel, we've seen brave defenders of human rights, including the human rights of Palestinians living under the harsh, humiliating and seemingly unending occupation of their land since 1967. Some of these Israelis have suffered intimidation and threats too. Just two weeks ago, the head of the impressive Israeli organisation, Betsalem, was shamefully and attacked and threatened inside the Security Council Chamber in here in New York by the Israeli ambassador and this was followed by online smear campaigns including by the Prime Minister of Israel. In Turkey, we have seen crackdowns that include arrest of huge numbers of journalists and also human rights defenders. And in Iran, we have seen many violations including the pattern of executing people who have committed crimes when they were children. And beyond the Middle East and North Africa region, we are now often speaking about a global backlash against human rights, significant setbacks to what we're trying to do, whether in the Americas or in Europe or in Asia or Africa. Now, I joined Amnesty International in 1979 as a schoolboy, but in all that time, I haven't seen such an apparently systematic attack on human rights as we see now. You are not alone, therefore, although I'm fully aware, as I said before, that it takes particular courage to stand up for human rights in the Arab world, given the frequency with which governments so brutally and illegally act towards people who champion freedoms, especially journalists and human rights defenders. In this connection, I would like to give a short quote from an article written by Zaid on the last day that he was in office, that he passed to August this year, an article he wrote in The Economist in which he wanted to praise some of the people for whom he had the highest admiration. And from your region, this is what he said. From Bahrain, for example, the Khawaja family, Nabil Rajab, my son, Al-Sulman, and Ebtisam Al-Sayegh, who have all shown extraordinary courage in the face of considerable adversity. This is what Zaid wrote. Hattu Najwar Al-Fassi and Samar Badawi in Saudi Arabia, courageous leading voices for the rights of Saudi women, both currently in detention. Amal Fati in Egypt and Raja Al-Mutawakal in Yemen are also brave individuals who have put their own safety at risk as they have spoken out against injustice and on behalf of victims of human rights violations. These are just a few of the many, including those who are at your meeting today, who deserve the world's and your region's gratitude for what they and you do. In the coming years, it's a major priority for our office to work to increase civil society space globally, even though we can see that the space for human rights engagement is shrinking in many places. Our office will continue to support local actors, institutions, and processes in the Arab world and to document more serious violations, especially where war continues to rage in an effort to promote accountability for war crimes. And we will continue to speak out when we feel the need to. I very much look forward to receiving and reading the outcome of your discussions in Tunis, which I'm very sure will inform our own future engagement in what more we can do to support and work together. So thank you for this opportunity to talk to you today, even if only virtually. And above all, thank you for the extraordinary work you do. You have my deepest respect.