CGNK encourages all States to ratify Genocide Convention at UN High-level panel

CGNK’s UN Representative at Geneva Christophe Barbey addressed the 9th Meeting of 39th Regular Session Human Rights Council during a High-level Panel Discussion to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) held in Geneva on September 13, 2018. In its intervention CGNK, an NGO in special consultative status with the UN ECOSOC, stated that it “does not recognize any right to kill, ever, never, whatsoever” and called for prevention, usage of non-lethal and nonviolent means, the abolition of the death penalty and the suppression of war.

Christophe Barbey also encouraged all 46 states that have not yet ratified the convention “to urgently do so and to commit themselves to do it today” on the basis that “Until universal respect for the right to life is fully and lastingly granted, the convention on genocide shows that mass killings are and will remain unacceptable and unbearable.” CGNK regularly participates in the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) at the UN specifically addressing and urging countries that have not yet ratified the convention to proceed with this important step.

Additionally, on September 14, CGNK also participated at the 11th Plenary Meeting of the 39th Regular Session of the Human Rights Council presenting its recommendations during the clustered interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence (A/HRC/39/53) and the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, that focused on the promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.