UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed here on Monday that all countries' human rights records should be scrutinized equally by the UN Human Rights Council.
"No country, however powerful, should escape scrutiny of its record, commitments and actions on human rights," Ban told the seventh regular session of the 47-nation rights body.
Ban hailed the start of the Council's Universal Periodic Review system, under which all UN member states will be reviewed regularly to assess whether they have fulfilled their human rights obligations.
"The Review must reaffirm that just as human rights are universal, so is our collective respect for them and our commitment to them," Ban said.
"It must help prevent the distrust that surrounded the work of the Commission on Human Rights in its final years," he added, recalling the accusations of bias and politicization that dogged the predecessor body whose work was taken over by the new Council in 2006.
Ban said the Council should rely on cooperation and confidence-building to achieve the goal of promoting and protecting human rights.
"Your power lies in persuading rather than compelling, in cooperation rather than imposing mandatory measures. Your power stems from credibility, not force," he told the meeting.
The Council's seventh session, including a high-level section for the views of government representatives, as well as expert panels and presentations by Special Rapporteurs, will run through March 28.
Source:Xinhua
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