State Secretary for European Integration and Chief Negotiator Aleksandar Andrija Pejović participated at the High-Level Segment – 5th Meeting, 28th Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council, which took place in Geneva on 2 and 3 March 2015. Montenegro is among the 47 HRC members for the period 1 January 2013 – 31 December 2015.
The meeting was launched by Joachim Rücker, President of the Council, and Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Mr Rücker recalled that this marks the 70th anniversary since the UN’s establishment and underlined that the UN family can be proud with the HRC’s achievements in the first decade of its work. He welcomed the delegations’ initiatives towards improving the HRC’s method of work and underlined the need of further improving its efficiency.
In addressing the participants, Ambassador Pejović underlined that each country has the individual responsibility to ensure dignity to its citizens, and that the contemporary threats go beyond national borders and require responsible approach by all relevant international actors.
He said that Montenegro shares the international community’s concern over the alarming state of human rights in countries engulfed in conflicts. In that context he voiced Montenegro’s support for the HRC’s special mechanism aimed at reporting on grave human rights violations, as well as Montenegro’s support to post-conflict countries in the form of expert assistance to establishing democratic institutions and the rule of law.
Mr Pejović underlined that Montenegro, as a Council member, has shown commitment to the development and preservation of an efficient promotion and protection mechanism of basic human rights and freedoms. He voiced Montenegro’s determination to working continuously in a responsible manner on solving the human rights protection issues and preventing all forms of discrimination and violence.
In that respect, he underlined that Montenegro will devote particular attention to developing mechanisms for successful incorporation of international provisions into domestic legislation, as well as its consistent implementation.
The participants underlined that the full protection and exercise of human rights is one of the UN pillars and that the HRC is promoting, through various mechanisms, the rights of those in gravest danger, such as women, migrants, sexual violence and conflict victims, children, and persons with disabilities. In that respect, it was underlined that all members need to align their actions with the HRC recommendations and mechanisms.
Meeting participants where high-level representatives of all UN member-states, among whom US State Secretary John Kerry, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, EU High Representative Federica Mogherini, virtually all EU foreign ministers, and government representatives from the Western Balkans.
At the meeting sidelines, Ambassador held bilateral talks with US Assistant Secretary of State Sheba Crocker, and representatives of Cyprus, Serbia, and Poland.