Mr. President,
High Commissioner,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the outset, let me congratulate the High Commissioner and his Office for their hard work and invaluable contribution in protecting and promoting human rights worldwide.

As a member of the Human Rights Council, Albania will continue to closely cooperate with other likeminded countries in supporting the independence and integrity of the mandate of the High Commissioner.

Over the past year we have actively contributed in the Council’s efforts to shape the global action on human rights and have supported the Council’s role as a springboard for identifying and addressing human rights violations.

Likewise, the HRC has been sound in its resolutions to promote freedom of religion, to condemn violent extremism, to promote and protect the human rights of most vulnerable groups and civil society.

Through its “crown jewel” – the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) – the HRC provides a great tool for self-evaluation on human rights as well as an efficient instrument to create a conducive environment for real improvement of the situation on the ground.

Albania remains deeply concerned about the ongoing violence and deterioration of human rights situations in many parts of the world.

At the same time, we are committed to work with other HRC members to timely bring to the attention of Council the situation of human rights in conflicted areas and work deliberately to achieve progress in protecting human rights in those areas.
Indeed, during this session Albania will present a new resolution on the situation of human rights in South Soudan and ask for the support of all countries.

Excellencies,

The year we left behind us looked like a chain of tragic events: massacres of Boko Haram in Nigeria, the cowardly attack against Charlie Hebdo in Paris, attacks in Lebanon, Egypt, and Turkey, November’s terrorist attacks in Paris, etc. These barbaric acts created a new geography of collective insecurity, against which no state is immune.

We are witnessing an unprecedented rise in religious intolerance, violent extremism and widespread discrimination and persecution of individuals belonging to religious, ethnic, or other minorities. Religious and cultural diversity are under serious threat in many parts of the world.

In such a challenging context, Albania is proud to be part of the core group of the Resolution on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism.

There is an urgent need to both prevent and counter (these are indeed two different things) violent extremism by adopting a comprehensive social framework including through empowering youth, women, local and religious leaders and civil society and by focusing on development and education.

Indeed, as the late Boutros Boutros-Ghali said: “The right to development is the measure of the respect of all other human rights.”

Last November Albania adopted the National Strategy to Counter Violent Extremism. It aims at harmonizing energies, with the substantial cooperation of religious leaders, to successfully prevent and counter violent extremism and better perform tasks related to the protection of internal and international security.
Nevertheless our success is also contingent on how successful our neighbors are in Countering Violent Extremism.

And that is why we are establishing a Regional CVE Centre alongside a Regional Youth Cooperation Office.

We want the future of our regional cooperation to be based on acceptance and tolerance, not on xenophobia or hate. In that vein, this simple effort may well prove a powerful instrument for meeting the targets of Security Council Resolution 2250 on Youth, Peace and Security.

Albania firmly believes in freedom of religion or belief and remains deeply concerned on the increasing number of acts of violence and intolerance against individuals based on religion or belief.

As a worldwide recognition of Albania’s inspiring example of religious tolerance, my country was picked up last year, September 6-8, 2015, to host the international conference: “Peace is always possible”.

The conference convened participants from over 60 countries around the world and from a multitude of faiths, while its key messages echoed the saying of Pope Francis, who visited Albania in 2014, that the model of the religious peaceful co-existence, it’s not a utopia, but completely possible, as in Albania.

Ladies and gentlemen,

In 2015, we witnessed the spill-over effects of conflicts in Europe’s periphery, primarily the ongoing wave of refugees from North Africa and the Middle East.

These people are forced to leave their homes and undertake risky trips across Mediterranean. They leave countries affected by conflicts, where human rights are systematically violated and poverty is widespread.

The refugee crisis has produced spill-over effects across the European continent. Indeed over the past year we have witnessed:

–    the rise of legitimate concerns about the terrorism/migration nexus
–    the rise of not so legitimate negative stereotypes
–    the rise of extremes across Europe
–    the rise of distrust amongst neighbors and allies

All this at the expense of cross-border cooperation and of a unified response.

Indeed it seems that those people who have fled countries where human rights are violated find themselves exposed to the risks of other violations across their journey.

We should increase our efforts to protect the human rights of migrants, based on a comprehensive approach which takes into account the full protection of human rights of migrants involving countries of origin, transit and destination.

I believe the HRC can help us avoid being cornered between on the one hand the values of liberty and solidarity and on the other, the increasingly illiberal set of policies that are blurring the political debate across the continent.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the HRC and the 50th anniversary of the two most important International Covenants on human rights: International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

It is clear, the Council itself has been at the top of frontline in promoting and defending human rights worldwide, while these two covenants, nowadays have make a tangible contribution to the improvement of the everyday lives of people from all the corners of the globe, while it is evident that they still preserve their original importance and relevance.
These two Covenants serve as vital tools to ensure that fundamental freedoms are upheld and promoted worldwide, and the international humanitarian response is given timely during crises.

On the other hand, these two Covenants are widely used by people to hold their governments accountable for respecting and upholding civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.

Albania is among the states that are committed to protect and promote all human rights and would like to use this opportunity to call on states that are not parties to the two Covenants, to ratify them as soon as possible.

Thank you !