Statement by EU Ambassador Tom Vens on the celebration of International Human Rights Day in Sierra Leone

Statement By EU Ambassador to Sierra Leone

Tom Vens

Human Rights Day 2020

Recover Better – Stand Up for Human Rights

Check Against Delivery

As we are starting to look at a more hopeful 2021, 2020 is unlikely to be a year that we will easily forget. 2020 will be remembered as the year in which the Coronavirus pandemic caused havoc – but we also witnessed the acceleration of a worrying trend that started several years ago, namely a gradual and persistent democratic backsliding and global governance under increasingly heavy stress. The global COVID pandemic has also underscored how digital technologies can be manipulated to spread disinformation and hate speech online, to undermine trust in authorities and response efforts and to reinforce conspiracy theories and extremist narratives.

This leaves us with a duty to build back better – by ensuring Human Rights are central to recovery efforts and are protected, both online and offline. We will reach our common global goals only if we are able to create equal opportunities for all, address the failures exposed and exploited by COVID-19, and apply human rights standards to tackle entrenched and systemic inequalities, exclusion and discrimination. Let’s think for a moment about the world we really want: it is one where we need to be able to rely on global solidarity and where we reaffirm a shared humanity and interconnectedness.

In Sierra Leone, we can look at the future with the comforting knowledge that the pandemic did not stand in the way of realising some remarkable achievements: criminal libel is a thing of the past and the right to education of every young girl is now firmly anchored in a policy of radical inclusion.  On Human Rights Day last year, the Government issued a public statement that it will continue to uphold the moratorium on the use of the death penalty and pardoned 2 women on death row. The instatement of a formal high-level dialogue between the Government and CSOs is another realisation that has the potential to create more space for the promotion and defence of human rights. Not only are these achievements that have earned Sierra Leone accolades in the international arena. Importantly, they reflect a national ambition to let hope prevail over fear. I warmly congratulate everyone – including many of you here – who played a role in these achievements!

Reflecting on what was achieved this year allows us to acknowledge that - as entrenched as these situations were - achieving real change is possible and is unambiguously rewarding. As we reflect on how we can make further progress on an ambitious human rights agenda to create a more just and equitable society, I invite you to consider the following opportunities:

• A critical analysis of the laws, regulations and practices in order to screen and eliminate all direct and indirect discriminatory practices, especially when it comes to the rights of women and girls and persons with disabilities;
• A pro-active engagement to preserve and increase the civic space. A shrinking space often results from excessive administrative requirements or from the imposition of financial constraints that de facto reduce the space for civil society and NGOs to operate – this requires all of us to be alert and vigilant;
• A focus on climate and environmental action both as a means to preserve our natural wealth and to advance a wide range of related, essential human rights: the right to health, food, water, education and even the right to life itself;
• A focus on digitalisation, not just as a development tool, but also with a clear intent to protect the right to privacy of every individual – acknowledging that data protection is becoming increasingly important in the governance space;
• Sustained efforts to combat false and misleading information that seek to fundamentally undermine democratic and human rights;
• The abolition of the death penalty as recommended by the Constitutional Review Commission;
• An ambitious human rights agenda, not just domestically, but also as global actors. In other words, a principled Human Rights approach can and should also guide foreign policy and positions. .

A rekindled constitutional review process would no doubt offer a firm framework to anchor some of these ambitions. But change also requires sustained efforts to strengthen institutions and pursue policy coherence around a clear agenda. As EU we stand ready in these efforts.

We are gathered here today  because we have a common agenda. It is heartening to know that, all of us here, are committed to not just protect but also promote  human rights; that we all recognise human rights as central to our ambition to build just and equitable societies.

Promoting and protecting human rights is of course not just a question of relations between the state and the citizens. Three years ago, when we marked Human Rights Day in Sierra Leone, the focus was on business and human rights. This is an area that increasingly attracts attention – also in the EU. We consider ourselves to be a frontrunner in implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and would like to reference one example, with high relevance for Sierra Leone: EU  law  imposes  obligations of  due  diligence on importers  of  timber and certain  minerals  from  conflict-affected  areas, who are  required  to put  in  place processes  to  identify  and mitigate adverse human rights and environmental impacts associated with their activities. Importantly, in approaching the issue of business and human rights, it is critical to do this also from the perspective of creating a level playing field. It cannot be the case that the focus and scrutiny largely targets those companies that are generally compliant, and that companies where the risks or evidence of abuse are high, manage to stay under the radar. It is our duty to create transparency around such realities and tackle them decisively.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no ambiguity around the fact that Human Rights are at the heart of the EU’s foreign policy. Just last week, the EU adopted its third Global Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy and two days ago, the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council added a new instrument to the EU’s human rights toolbox with the adoption of the EU’s Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. This regime will target serious human rights violations and abuses worldwide and will include the possibility to impose travel bans and the freezing of assets for perpetrators of serious human rights abuses. The message is clear: as EU we are serious when it comes to human rights.

The EU is also exploring how it can further foster human rights compliance in the digital sphere and seize the potential of new technologies to promote the protection of human rights for all. The impact of new technologies on human rights is therefore the theme chosen for the annual EU-NGO Human Rights Forum taking place today. Gathering human rights defenders and civil society organisations from across the world, the Forum explores 4 main themes: fundamental freedoms in the digital sphere, engaging with the private sector, privacy and surveillance and artificial intelligence.

As I conclude, distinguished guests, let us be reminded that Human Rights are not just lofty principles propagated by defenders in an often hostile world where selfish or tribal instincts can appear to have the upper hand. Human Rights represent hope. The hope that we should all aspire to represent. Always and relentlessly. It is a choice that we make as citizens, as policy-makers and as persons who translate policy into action. Let us all join forces to this end.