Mr. President,
We welcome the Secretary-General’s update on the operationalization of the Independent Investigative Mechanism on Afghanistan, which will be a vital tool in advancing accountability for past and ongoing grave violations and abuses.
We would like to highlight three situations that require enhanced monitoring and reporting by the Office and Special Procedures and attention from this Council.
In Tanzania, the October 2025 elections were marred by serious abuses by law enforcement and nationwide internet restrictions. This followed growing government repression over several years, and in the months before the elections an intensified clampdown on free expression and association. Government critics faced arbitrary arrests, violent attacks, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings. We urge the government to ensure impartial and credible investigations.
The human rights situation in Georgia has also sharply deteriorated in the past two years, marked by a wave of restrictive legislation and deliberate government actions aimed at silencing independent media and government critics, undermining the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association and to non-discrimination. The government should release those unjustly detained, investigate abuses by law enforcement officers and repeal or amend repressive laws that violate international obligations.
We are alarmed by the dangerous slide of the United States toward authoritarianism, as the administration has deliberately rolled back important civil rights protections and democratic guardrails, including anti-discrimination protections and remedies designed to address structural racial discrimination. Protesters have been subjected to excessive and lethal force.
The government has publicly accused advocacy groups and philanthropic foundations of extremism or terrorism. US immigration enforcement agencies have carried out raids where agents have used race and ethnicity as crude proxies for apparent immigration status, in targeting people for questioning and detention. During raids, agents have assaulted individuals, and broke car windows and front doors, and detained children. They operate masked and without visible identification, harming both immigrants and citizens. The US has also committed a wide range of abuses against asylum seekers and refugees, including deportations to unsafe third countries and countries of origin despite clear risks.
Thank you.
