South Africa Calls For Balanced Approach In Human Rights

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South Africa has called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to take a balanced approach to human rights.

“[The Council] needs to act in a manner that reflects the Vienna spirit of the indivisibility, interdependence and interrelatedness of all human rights.

“We need to prevent the misuse of human rights as an instrument for advancing political agendas of individual countries,” Deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Luwellyn Landers, said on Tuesday.

He was speaking at the high-level segment 37th session of the UNHRC underway in Geneva.

Marking the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted in 1948 by the UN General Assembly, Deputy Minister Landers said there are still areas that constitute an unfinished business for the international community.

These include the legacy of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, as well as poverty and inequality which are sometimes altered by some leaders who are not concerned about not effects of their utterances that border on incitement to hatred.

Landers said the world can only eliminate them through collective effort and cooperation.

“As a moral leader for the promotion and protection of human rights, the Council should not turn a blind eye to this major challenge of our time. It is important to work constructively with member states in combatting these scourges.”

SA News

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