The Commonwealth of 54 countries, 32 of which are small, are facing a climate change emergency that is costing lives and presenting an \u201cundeniable human rights challenge\u201d to the world.
\nCommonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland Wednesday addressed the High Level\u00a0Segment of the UN Human Rights Council\u2019s 43rd Regular Session in Geneva.
\nShe said: \u201cThe stark reality for many states is that their people are losing lives, facing malnutrition, unable to find clean water and their homes are disappearing right before our eyes.
\n\u201cFrom the devastation of hurricane Dorian in The Bahamas last year to the wrath of bushfires in Australia, from severe drought in Namibia to islands inundated with king tides in Kiribati, climate change is a threat to the world and an emergency for small states.\u201d
\nThe Secretary-General said the Commonwealth advocates for changes in policies, modification of behaviour and curbs in pollution to reverse damage to our environment and ensure climate justice, especially for small states.
\nShe spoke of the barriers to advancing human rights and inclusive development still faced by many victims of discrimination around the Commonwealth.
\n\u201cThis year\u2019s Commonwealth theme is \u2018Delivering a Common Future\u2019. This future cannot be \u2018common\u2019 without being inherently inclusive. Simply put, we have to respect the dignity and equality of all citizens in the Commonwealth family,\u201d she said.
\nThe Secretary-General added: \u201cWe remain steadfast in our commitment to support member states improve access to justice through strengthening national human rights institutions, ensuring independent judiciaries, improving capacity of officials to apply human rights standards, and reducing financial and bureaucratic barriers for people to access police, administrative offices and courts.\u201d
\nThe Commonwealth on Tuesday held an event in Geneva on the safety of journalists and media freedom.
\nSecretary-General Scotland said: \u201cJournalists hold a special place in the Commonwealth family as the eyes, ears and voices of our citizens.\u201d
\nShe stressed that a vibrant and responsible media is essential to advancing Commonwealth goals.
\n\u201cFreedom to share information, express ourselves and do so without reprisals, threats and harm is the bedrock of human civilisation and democratic governance,\u201d the Secretary-General stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Commonwealth of 54 countries, 32 of which are small, are facing a climate change emergency that is costing lives and presenting an \u201cundeniable human rights challenge\u201d to the world. Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland Wednesday addressed the High Level\u00a0Segment of the UN Human Rights Council\u2019s 43rd Regular Session in Geneva. She said: \u201cThe stark reality […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":24913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[565,998],"class_list":["post-24911","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-climate-change","tag-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24911","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24911"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24911\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}