Inter-sessional meeting “Technical cooperation and capacity-building in the Human Rights Council: taking stock of the past for a better discharge of this mission in the future”

20 April, 2023

April 20, 2023

Inter-sessional meeting “Technical cooperation and capacity-building in the Human Rights Council: taking stock of the past for a better discharge of this mission in the future”

Delivered by Lilit Toutkhalian, Minister Plenipotentiary, Permanent Representative of Armenia

Madam Chairperson,

Armenia has been actively engaged in HRC discussions on the need for increased technical cooperation and capacity-building, including but not limited to the effective implementation of the UPR recommendations. In our view, both the HRC agenda item 10 and the existing avenues for technical cooperation and capacity building are underutilized in terms of promotion and protection of human rights. A lot more can be successfully achieved in a proper and timely manner on international, regional, national, and local levels if sufficient attention is paid to the needs and views of the societies concerned. There should not be any barriers for the capacity-building and technical assistance when it comes to the needs of the populations concerned and based on their requests. An unhindered and unfettered access should be established in line with the UN mandate and without any distinction whatsoever. Respect, attention and care are conditions sine qua non for successful technical cooperation and capacity-building.

We are convinced that it should be pursued through a dedicated wide multi-stakeholder engagement in the spirit of genuine cooperation with the aim to diagnose the ailments to be addressed. “Prevention is better than cure,” as the Dutch philosopher Desiderius Erasmus noted. It is pertinent to recall this dictum in the framework of the current discussion bearing in mind huge potential of human rights to act as a problem-solving measure.

That is also true for national ownership, and we know it well from our own experience. The Government of Armenia itself has been actively working on the incorporation of the 2030 Agenda into the national reform agenda and strategies. One of the objectives entertained was to develop a long-term transformation strategy for Armenia, which should include mega-goals with their own targets, indicators, tasks, and solutions.

On 1 June 2021, the Government of Armenia and the UN Country Team signed the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for Armenia 2021-2025. It is the central framework for planning and implementation of the development activities at the country level. It outlines the UN system’s contribution to reach the SDGs in an integrated manner, with a commitment to leave no one behind, uphold human rights, and other international standards and obligations.

The availability of recent, comparable and high-quality disaggregated data is essential for informed decision-making processes. In Armenia, specific capacity building for the National Statistics Committee has been necessary for household data analysis and management, especially in the context of food security indicators’ composition and analysis. World Food Programme and World Bank have been important partners to this end. In general, we all need investments in public systems to improve the quality of the public services because the civil servants are the main point of contact between the people and the States.

Finally, Armenia attaches great importance to the development of whole-of-Government and whole-of-society approaches and practices since the challenges we all face, regardless of the income level of a given country, are too big to be easily pigeonholed or tasked upon this or that agency. Furthermore, the humanity faces several challenges on the global scale, such as climate change, food crisis and alike, which require what we should label as the whole-of-the-world approach. It is necessary to conduct impact assessments of major policies and build new capacities at international, regional, national and local levels in order to strengthen strategic foresight and anticipatory decision-making for the global challenges we need to respond to.

I thank you.

MFA RA
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