A/HRC/34/33 II. Opening session 5. The Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Ecuador, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, introduced the panellists, and pointed out that the objective of the workshop was to explore the ways in which public policies could be made more inclusive and thereby more effective in making human rights a reality for people. This was also a matter of making the work of the Human Rights Council useful at the country level, with tangible impact for rights-holders. She noted that this was not the responsibility solely of Governments but of societies as a whole. She added that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development offered important opportunities in this regard. Ambassador Espinosa welcomed the workshop as an important forum for dialogue and exchange on good experiences and practises. 6. In her introductory remarks, the Deputy United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Kate Gilmore, stressed that the task of mainstreaming human rights in public policymaking carried a considerable weight of responsibility. To this end, there was a need to find the surest route or pathway to alleviate preventable human suffering. She referred to the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its opening promise that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. The challenge was to make this a reality for everyone, everywhere. Major impediments confronting rightsholders every day were no accidents of fate, nor were they always the results of the absence of public resources. Some key barriers were the products of discrimination in public policies and social policies that left some behind. These obstacles to development were of our own making; it was therefore also within our power to dismantle them. Different choices could be made. Some policies governing, for instance, land management, work conditions and industrial relations actively drove inequality. Policy choices were compounded in racial discrimination; for example, persons of African descent had a persistent disadvantage in finding work and in their access to public services. Minorities were overrepresented in prisons, but often underrepresented in decision-making. She added that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was clear and explicit on this point. The promise to “leave no one behind” was a commitment that no bigotry would set the tone for public policies. Governance must be rooted in dignity and justice, so that no one is left out or left behind. The Deputy High Commissioner recalled that it was the Member States themselves that had established international laws prohibiting discrimination. The surest and speediest pathway to empower people was by ensuring that they themselves were agents of change who could participate in planning and decision-making. 7. The Deputy High Commissioner made reference to a recent report of the Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, in which he had described how economic, social and cultural rights still, in many instances, remained invisible in the law and institutions of many Member States (A/HRC/32/31, para. 2). Recognizing these rights in law and in practice was essential to guard against entrenched elites who protect themselves by marginalizing economic and social rights. The good news was that equitable public policies were not only possible, but also fiscally wise, technically intelligent and security friendly. By way of illustration, the Deputy High Commissioner recalled the case of many States in Latin America, where social and economic inequalities were gradually being overcome through strategic social spending. For such policies to be effective, disaggregated data had to be collected and analysed. The workshop was therefore a valuable opportunity to benefit from the ideas of participants. 8. Introducing the agenda of the day, the Officer-in-Charge of the Field Operations and Technical Cooperation Division of OHCHR, Gianni Magazzeni, explained that the workshop had been organized around four consecutive dialogues on specific aspects and phases of the policymaking process. The first dialogue focused on the preparatory phase 3