Madam President,

I have the honor to speak on behalf of a group of countries. We are gravely concerned that some countries fabricate and spread disinformation out of political purposes, and smear others under the pretext of human rights, in an attempt to make excuses for interfering in other countries’ internal affairs, imposing unilateral coercive measures and setting up country-specific mechanisms at the Human Rights Council. These acts severely violate the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, run counter to the principles of universality, impartiality and objectivity of the work of the Human Rights Council, and will only misdirect the work of international human rights mechanisms and undermine their reputation. We are also gravely concerned that a few special procedure mandate holders indiscriminately take unauthenticated information from western media and political groups to make groundless accusations against sovereign States.

We urge countries concerned to immediately stop fabricating and spreading disinformation and refrain from using human rights as a political tool. We also hope that relevant special procedure mandate holders will perform their duties in a fair and objective manner, and respect the authoritative information provided by the governments of States so as to avoid being used by those with ulterior motives.

Thank you, Madam President.