A/HRC/26/34
2.
Second anniversary of the Maastricht Principles
20.
In a joint statement dated 28 September 2013, the Special Rapporteurs on extreme
poverty and human rights, on the right to food, on the human right to safe drinking water
and sanitation and the Independent Expert on human rights and international solidarity
urged States worldwide to take into account a set of guidelines known as the Maastricht
Principles on the Extraterritorial Obligations of States in the area of Economic, Social and
Cultural rights. The Principles had been adopted on 28 September 2011 by leading
specialists in international law and human rights in Maastricht, the Netherlands. In the joint
statement, the Independent Expert pointed out that principles 26 to 35 clearly spelled out
the conduct of States in their relations with each other, taking into account their shared
human rights obligations.
3.
United Nations Climate Change Conference in Warsaw
21.
The Independent Expert addressed a message to States attending the nineteenth
session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (COP19) and the ninth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as
the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP9), held in Warsaw from 11 to 23
November 2013. She encouraged them to ground their discussions on the principle of
international solidarity and echoed calls for United Nations talks not to stall over the issue
of compensation for the effects of climate change. She stated that time was too short and
the consequences too great to risk those negotiations being caught up in entrenched political
positions and economic self-interest. She stressed that the Warsaw Conference was the
moment for genuine collaboration among States to establish safeguards for minimizing the
adverse effects of climate change on the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all
peoples, especially those in the most vulnerable countries.
4.
International Human Solidarity Day
22.
The Independent Expert issued a statement to mark International Human Solidarity
Day, celebrated every year on 20 December in recognition of the imperative to come
together as one human family to address the contemporary global challenges confronting all
peoples and countries, and unify in peace to preserve and save our planet not only for
ourselves but also for future generations. The Independent Expert noted that many global
challenges and mass human rights violations, including global poverty, have persisted
because of the pervasive gaps that exist in communities, between countries, and in
international policy frameworks, and which allow the world’s most vulnerable people to
fall through the cracks. International solidarity is the bridge across those gaps in
understanding, action and accountability. She stressed that the post-2015 development
agenda was an opportunity to close the gaps that persist, and create a global development
framework based on a genuine global partnership between States with human rights at its
heart. She urged all stakeholders currently building the agenda to be true to their promises
in the Millennium Declaration, to hold up solidarity and shared responsibility as the
“fundamental values … essential to international relations in the twenty-first century” and
to anchor the next global development agenda in international solidarity.
E.
1.
Participation in human rights education and training programmes
Diplomacy Training Program
23.
The Independent Expert was invited by Diplomacy Training Program twice during
the past year to give keynote speeches and facilitate two of its training programmes. The
first was on Indigenous Peoples, Human Rights Advocacy and Development, a programme
for indigenous advocates of the Asia-Pacific region, held in Phnom Penh from 10 to 19
6
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