Their dignity will be mine, as it is yours.

• Author: Vieira de Mello, Sergio
• Position: Essay

I view the position of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights as a daunting challenge that I face personally, that the United Nations face collectively, to make our work in the field of human rights have true meaning. Collective effort is not only the best way to make a difference for those who need us most, it is the only way. It is individuals who will have my foremost attention during my term as High Commissioner. Their dignity will be mine, as it is yours.

Human rights are about ensuring dignity, equality and security for all human beings everywhere. These three formidable notions are at the core of our vision. They are closely interlinked. Dignity, which reflects both autonomy and responsibility, concerns the individual. Equality is the cornerstone of effective and harmonious relationships between people; it underpins our common systems of ethics and rights, whether we are discussing equality before the law or the need for equity in how States and international systems conduct their affairs. Neither dignity nor equality, of course, can take root in the absence of basic security.

These notions are not ideals and aspirations that are impossible to achieve. They translate into benchmarks to measure conduct. More than half a century of collective hard work has provided us with norms that provide content to these notions. We have a universal human rights framework embedded in the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the two International Covenants on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and on Civil and Political Rights, as well as other core human rights treaties. These instruments have inspired provisions in many national constitutions and laws and led to the creation of long-term national infrastructures for the protection and promotion of human rights. Ensuring that these rights are attainable by those who need them most--the victims of human rights violations--is what gives the United Nations meaning.

It is, to be blunt, the only point behind our being here today. If the Commission on Human Rights, and my Office, cannot protect the weak, what value do they have? Dignity, equality and security require systems of justice that can maintain and uphold these values. I therefore intend to focus on justice and the consistent application of the rule of law as an overarching theme. This rich concept provides that law should operate as an instrument to protect the dignity and worth of the human person, not as a tool to permit arbitrary rule or cruelty or an abdication of a State's basic responsibilities towards its citizens.

We will address violations, whether deliberate or the result of lack of awareness, weak structures or insufficient resources. We will help States to integrate and implement the international norms that they have framed--and that they have accepted--through treaties' ratification, even as it is States that must fully assume their responsibilities to uphold human rights. We will urge them to bring human rights fully to their people and to advance their national protection systems. We will work with leaders and officials, the judiciary, national parliaments, national human rights commissions and with civil society. We can help educate and build capacity, we can assist, we can exhort, and we will speak up when necessary to ensure that excesses are remedied: one thing we must not do is compromise on our end goal.

Let me now say a word about terrorism and the measures that are taken by States to address this scourge. Although terrorism is not a new phenomenon, any discussion of this subject nowadays must begin with what happened last year, on 11 September. The victims of those horrific attacks have a basic right to justice. This traumatic episode must...