2021 marked the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, a prolonged crisis that continues to undermine human rights the world over. 

Pandemic-related inequalities magnified existing gaps between the marginalized and privileged, conflicts erupted and intensified and the deadly consequences of climate change wreaked havoc in many countries.

Despite the hardship, last year also gave us reasons for hope. Extraordinary collaboration between scientific and medical experts – working at an impressive and unprecedented speed – delivered effective vaccines against COVID-19. In the face of the tragedies that were caused or compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has shown remarkable resilience and an ability to adapt. 

At UN Human Rights, I am proud of our staff who have risen to the challenges of our new ways of working and are continuing their tireless efforts to ensure human rights are being upheld all over the world. 

I thank the 1,669 UN Human Rights staff members, across our 103 field presences and at headquarters, for their unwavering dedication and vision.

This annual report is a testimony to their initiatives and achievements. 

Throughout 2021, we continued to fight for the human rights of those affected by conflict. In Ethiopia, we documented severe and wide-scale violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law committed in Tigray. In Myanmar, we publicly condemned the violence following February’s military coup and called for perpetrators to be held accountable. And as Syria marked one decade of its devastating war, we continue to advocate for truth, justice and reparations for its victims.

During the year, we doubled the number of our Emergency Response Teams stationed around the world to enhance our early warning analysis. In Nicaragua, we brought international attention to widespread political repression, including the detention of human rights defenders, political opponents and journalists during the elections.

In December, I travelled to the Sahel region of Africa, visiting Niger and Burkina Faso, where we opened an office. In this region, plagued by poverty, conflict and the ravages of climate change, I renewed our commitment to working closely with our partners on human rights and encouraged governments to enable inclusive dialogue with all groups, particularly ethnic and religious minorities, women and youth, to find durable solutions for peace and sustainable development. 

We continued to highlight the deep inequalities exposed by the pandemic and consistently advocated for vaccine equity, universal health care and improved social protection around the world. We prioritized the needs of vulnerable groups in response and recovery efforts, including, for example, Roma people and older persons in the Republic of Moldova, LGBTI people in Panama, women detainees in Senegal and persons with disabilities in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Our Surge Initiative – comprised of a team of economic, social and cultural rights experts – maintained its focus on strengthening the centrality of rights in the design and monitoring of economic policies. They implemented projects, advising States, UN Country Teams, civil society and other partners on building effective responses and sustained solutions to the pandemic anchored in human rights. 

Dismantling systemic racism and racial discrimination remained a central part of our work in 2021. The killing of George Floyd in the previous year and the subsequent global movement that saw millions of people standing up against racism highlighted the litany of abuses against Africans and people of African descent. Based on the findings of my report published in June, I called on all Member States to adopt a four-point transformative agenda to uproot systemic racism and put an end to impunity. 

Following up on Human Rights resolution 43/1, in Europe, our advocacy contributed to the adoption of a recommendation on Roma equality, inclusion and participation by the Council of the European Union. As of the end of the year, 11 EU countries had presented or adopted Roma National Strategies.

Over the last 12 months, we have seen a disturbing global escalation of discrimination and hate speech in the digital sphere. At the same time, social media companies and governments are applying increasingly strict content regulations, placing freedom of expression and opinion under grave threat - underscoring the importance of our advocacy and collaboration with major social media companies to ensure that minorities and human rights defenders are better protected.

As the climate emergency’s devastating consequences continued to play out globally, threatening the survival of our planet, our advocacy underscored the centrality of human rights to climate change adaptation and mitigation policies. In October, the Human Rights Council adopted a landmark resolution, recognizing, for the first time, the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

Finally, our focus on actively promoting the rights of women and girls remained a core activity last year. Our legal advice and support led to the adoption of a new gender-based violence law aimed at prevention and protection in North Macedonia. With our support, a similar draft law was presented to the Parliament in Libya. We also strengthened our response to sexual and gender-based violence in a large number of countries, including Kenya and Somalia.

The results and achievements of our work are simply not possible without the support of our donors. We are grateful for your generous assistance in 2021, which led to a record high of received voluntary contributions of US$227.7 million.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to stand up for human rights. We cannot do this without you. 

Time and again, history has proven that investing in human rights can help us emerge stronger from crisis. I am convinced that if we stand united in the fight against discrimination and inequality and demand the freedoms that we all deserve, we will pave the way to the world we aspire to, with human dignity and justice at its core.