QUNO Geneva engaged with the 58th session of the Human Rights Council with particular attention to the human rights impacts of the climate crisis, the right to conscientious objection to military service, the human rights impacts of arms transfers, and the primary focus of the Human Rights and refugees Programme: human rights of migrants.

During his global update 3 March, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, raised the alarm about rising social tensions fueled by inequality, injustices, scapegoating, disinformation and dehumanization. “Dehumanization is a well-worn step towards treating an entire group as outsiders, unworthy of the basic rights we all enjoy,” Türk said. This dehumanization, Türk underscored, is a “dangerous precursor to hate and violence and must be called out whenever it occurs.” 

QUNO’s Human Rights and Refugees Programme raised similar concerns, specifically in the context of dehumanization of migrants in two of its statements. In its statement during the General Debate on Item 2, Laurel Townhead, Human Rights and Refugees Representative, it stressed the inherent dignity of every human being while adding that dehumanization undermines the foundation of freedom, justice and peace. The statement reiterated the joint calls for an independent international human rights monitoring mechanism at borders and QUNO’s call for a High-Level Panel on Deaths in Transit. These two mechanisms are necessary to engage political will to end border violence and an important step towards accountability. 

As part of our work to dismantle systemic racism in migration governance including through  increased attention in UN discussions and documents, QUNO welcomed the recent report by the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing. The report (A/HRC/58/50) challenges dehumanizing and divisive narratives that scapegoat migrants for exacerbating the global housing crisis. 

In our statement during the Interactive Dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on 7 March, Kaya van der Horst, Human Rights and Refugees Programme Assistant thanked the Special Rapporteur for “highlighting the role of discriminatory anti-migrant policies, racism and xenophobia in inhibiting migrants’ enjoyment of their right to adequate housing” in his report. QUNO called on States to engage with the upcoming Council-mandated intersessional panel on measures to address dehumanizing and harmful narratives about migrants and migration. QUNO encourages States to come to that event ready to share actions they have taken to reshape narratives on migration and how they are ensuring that migrants themselves have the access and resources needed to participate in reshaping these narratives.