Your Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

‘Injustice anywhere, is a threat to justice everywhere.’ 
Memorable words of Martin Luther King Jr. 
He wrote them in 1963, from a prison cell in Alabama, where he was jailed for opposing segregation.
And their meaning still resonates today.  
They resonate in Ukraine, where families are enduring winter nights in near-freezing apartments after Russian attacks on energy infrastructure. 
They resonate in Sudan, where famine continues to spread across war-torn Darfur
They resonate in Gaza, in Belarus, in Iran, in Myanmar. 
Because human rights violations never occur in isolation.
They ripple far beyond the lives of those directly affected, undermining economic growth, hindering sustainable development and eroding peace and security.
And the resulting instability doesn’t stop at national borders.
It affects other nations through refugee flows, disrupted trade and regional insecurity.
This hard reality underlines the importance of safeguarding human rights and upholding the rule of law.
It’s crucial to defend essential freedoms, including freedom of expression, free and independent media, and freedom of religion or belief.

Ever since its foundation, the United Nations has played a critical role in promoting and protecting these values around the world.
Today the UN is more important than ever, as we witness increasing pressure on human rights and widespread impunity for grave human rights violations.
The rapidly changing world order requires us all to work together to build a UN that is far more efficient, effective and relevant.
The UN80 reform process offers a crucial opportunity to revitalise the organisation.
In that process, it is essential that we prioritise the protection, reinforcement and reform of the UN human rights system.
With that in mind, we strongly support the initiative of the UN Secretary-General to establish a Human Rights Group, which can reinforce a human rights-based approach across all UN agencies and pillars.
Right now, the UN Human Rights Pillar is structurally underfunded. It accounts for only one per cent of the UN’s total expenses. 
This must change.

The UN needs a strong and well-resourced Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, with potent field presences. 
So the Netherlands will continue to provide significant voluntary additional contributions to the Office, and we encourage our partners to do likewise. 
In recent years, the UN Human Rights Council has played a key role in promoting justice and accountability.
It has created numerous international investigative mechanisms mandated to collect and preserve evidence.
This important work must continue.
Victims of grave human rights violations around the world have every right to demand justice.
And history teaches us that there can be no sustainable peace without justice.

Even if accountability can only be achieved in the longer term, we must keep pushing for it.
The Netherlands therefore supports the High Commissioner’s initiative to establish an Inquiries Branch within the OHCHR.
Its aim is to provide capacity and support to all the independent investigative mechanisms of the Council.  
We call on more States to provide voluntary financial support for this important initiative. 

Your Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The promotion and protection of universal human rights is a shared interest, and therefore a shared responsibility.
So it is our collective duty to uphold these rights, and to support the institutions that protect them. 
Because justice anywhere brings justice everywhere.
Thank you.