Thank you, Mr President. I will be brief this morning.

Thank you SRSG for your comprehensive update. The UK recognises the challenging circumstances faced since the Secretary-General’s last report – as you and others have described today – and we welcome the progress made.

The people of Haiti deserve an end to the dysfunction that has plagued state institutions and governance in this country for so long.

I would like to start by joining others in calling for credible and transparent legislative elections as soon as possible. These are necessary to put Haiti on a path towards stability and prosperity.

Concurrent progress on human rights is critical to underpin stability. The United Kingdom welcomes the appointment of a Minister-delegate for Human Rights and the Fight against Extreme Poverty. This is an important step to demonstrating political will to safeguard human rights.

However, we are concerned that the National Action Plan for Human Rights is yet to be adopted by the Council of Ministers.

I also wanted to express our grave concern over the assassination of the President of the Port-au-Prince Bar Association, Montferrier Dorval. The UK calls for a prompt and transparent investigation into this, and welcomes the commitment by President Moïse to hold perpetrators to account.

Mr President, the establishment, almost one year ago, of the Integrated UN Office in Haiti (BINUH) reflected this Council’s conviction that the international community’s engagement with Haiti needed to rest on a new model of cooperation, with Haitians firmly in the lead.

The UK welcomes the finalisation of the UN Integrated Strategic Framework that supports and underpins Haiti’s national priorities. We are pleased to see the UN Country Team stepping up, and instruments such as the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) – to which the UK is wholeheartedly committed – being deployed strategically.

As we approach discussions on mandate renewal, the UK continues to be supportive of BINUH’s work.

But it is political commitment – from all leaders – that is needed to overcome national divisions, and give Haiti the chance to break through the cycles of instability and to begin a new chapter.

Thank you, Mr President.

The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) has released a new free version of its popular data processing tool.

Baleen 3 is a tool for building data processing pipelines using the open source Annot8 framework and succeeds Baleen 2, one of the first open source projects by Dstl, the science inside UK defence and security. It offers users the ability to search, process and collate data, and is suitable for personal and commercial applications. It has been used across government, and by industry and academia, and also internationally as well as in the UK.

The tool enables the creation of a bespoke chain of “processors” to extract information from unstructured data (e.g. text documents, images). For example, Baleen 3 could process a folder with thousands of Word Documents and PDFs in it to extract all e-mail addresses and phone numbers in those documents and store them in a database.

As well as text, Baleen 3 can also find and extract images within those documents, perform OCR to find text within those images, translate that text into English, and then run machine learning models to find mentions of People within those images.

Baleen 3 supports components developed within the Annot8 framework, and as a result it is easy to extend and develop further to cover new use cases and provide additional functionality. There are already a large number of components available for use within the Annot8 framework, including some previously developed by Dstl.

Following the release of Baleen 3, support for the existing Baleen 2 project will be withdrawn. Dstl is encouraging all users to move to using Baleen 3 where possible. Baleen 3 is built on top of newer technologies, and will be easier to maintain and deploy as a result of the upgrade. It also extends Baleen 2’s focus on text to support other forms of unstructured data, such as images.

Baleen 3 was co-developed by Dstl staff on the Augmenting the Analyst project (Information Systems programme), and Committed Software.

Baleen 3 is available to download now from https://github.com/dstl/baleen3. For more information, please contact oss@dstl.gov.uk.

Madam President,

I am reading this statement on behalf of the 54 member states of the Commonwealth* as current Chair-in-office. This is the first time the Commonwealth has addressed the Council as a group.

Members of the Commonwealth have common bonds and common histories, but also incredible diversity. Our collective population amounts to 2.4 billion people, across the globe, from some of the largest countries in the world, to some of the smallest, including many small island developing states. 9 of our members currently serve on the Human Rights Council.

At the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London in 2018 we reaffirmed our shared commitment to work together within a rules based international system to address shared global challenges and to foster a fairer, more secure, more sustainable and more prosperous future. We recalled the Commonwealth’s proud history of acting to strengthen good governance and the rule of law, to protect and promote democratic principles and human rights, to promote peace and security and to strengthen democratic institutions. We emphasised that the full social, economic and political participation of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status, is essential for democracy and sustainable development to thrive.

This commitment takes into account the special requirements of least developed countries, and of small and otherwise vulnerable economies, and it benefits all our citizens and the wider world. Small States, and Small Island Developing States continue to be disproportionately affected by natural disasters, climate change, and a lack of human and institutional capacity.

We recognise that concerted action is required to address the unique challenges and vulnerability of small states to ensure their full participation in and contribution to a more prosperous future. All states, irrespective of size or resources should be able to participate at the Human Rights Council and more broadly at the multilateral mechanisms in Geneva and New York. This increases the legitimacy of these forums and makes them more representative of the international community.

Upon the request of states, the Commonwealth small states offices in Geneva and New York supports Commonwealth Member States in the multilateral arena.

The strength of the Commonwealth lies in the collaboration that takes place among our diverse member states, and we recognise that at the multilateral level, such collaboration and support is essential to protect and promote the Commonwealth cornerstones of democracy, human rights, peace, and security. In this regard, we reaffirm that the Commonwealth way is to seek consensus through consultation and the sharing of experience, especially through practical cooperation.

These values and principles are enshrined in the Commonwealth Charter, and the Commonwealth and its members will continue to demonstrate these values in Geneva at the Human Rights Council.

*This statement is on behalf of the 54 member states of the Commonwealth: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belize, Botswana, Brunei Darussalam, Cameroon, Canada, Cyprus, Dominica, Fiji, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Kingdom of eSwatini, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Malta, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Saint Lucia, Samoa, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and The Grenadines, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Kingdom, United Republic of Tanzania, Vanuatu and Zambia.

In 2018 the Government published the first ever Strategy for our Veterans and followed this up in 2020 with the Veterans Strategy Action Plan which set out the first steps the Government is taking to achieve its ambition of making the United Kingdom the best place to be a veteran anywhere in the world. Making the Civil Service a Great Place to Work for Veterans is just one part of achieving this ambition.

There are around 2.2 million Armed Forces Veterans in the United Kingdom and every year around 15,000 people leave the Armed Forces. Around 60% of them are under 35 with most seeking to take up a new career or job opportunities in civilian employment. As well as making the Civil Service the most inclusive employer in the UK the Government is committed to maximising the support and recognition for veterans in society. This includes those aspects and opportunities, such as employment in high quality jobs, which help them to flourish and successfully make the transition from life in the Armed Forces to civilian employment. Veterans also bring with them unique skills and experience and many of the values which the Civil Service also thrives on; a commitment to public service, team work, inclusion, creativity and drive.

A Great Place to Work

In February 2020, the Government announced the introduction of a new initiative to make the Civil Service ‘A Great Place to Work for Veterans’. Many veterans already work in the Civil Service and contribute a huge amount to the organisation, and this initiative aims to encourage more veterans to take this step. These new measures are focused on roles at all grades, functions and professions across the Civil Service.

We are now taking the first step in delivering this and meeting the Government’s 2019 manifesto commitment to make it easier for veterans to secure interviews for Civil Service roles.

As a result veterans who meet the minimum criteria for a role will progress to the next stage of selection. In most cases this will be an interview, but depending on the vacancy it may be another method of selection such as an online test or an assessment centre.

Early Adopter phase and wider roll out

The scheme completed an early adopter phase in five early adopter departments: the Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Justice, National Crime Agency and the Home Office (including Border Force). The Welsh Government also ran the scheme. This Early Adopter phase allowed the Civil Service to conduct user testing (including research) of recruitment solutions, ensured the experience for veterans, recruiters and managers was a positive one and helped evolve the scheme so that it can be successfully rolled out across the Civil Service.

From November, we began to roll out the initiative across the Civil Service. Please note that initially not all job vacancies in all Departments will be selected for the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative. Roles available will be clearly marked.

If you are an applicant and are unsure, you should contact the vacancy manager or recruitment point of contact. We expect the majority of vacancies will be part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative by 31 March 2022.

Roles selected for this initiative will be externally advertised, and can be either temporary or permanent, and at any grade.

Eligibility

To be eligible for this scheme in the Civil Service, you must:

• have served for at least one year in Her Majesty’s Armed Forces (as a Regular or Reserve); this includes time spent training
• be in transition from, or ceased to be a member of, HM Armed Forces
• not already be a civil servant, or be employed by a Civil Service Commission accredited public body

There is no maximum time limit from when you left HM Armed Forces to be eligible for this initiative.

Using the initiative

When you apply for a role through Civil Service Jobs, you will be prompted to enter whether you are eligible for the Great Place to Work Initiative and whether you would like to apply for the role through this route.

Please note that during pre-employment checks for a role in the Civil Service, your employment history will be checked. An attempt to use this initiative fraudulently may result in your application being terminated.

Recruitment in the Civil Service

The Civil Service recruits using the Success Profiles Framework. This allows us to assess candidates against a range of elements using a variety of selection methods. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job. Not all elements are relevant to every role, so the Success Profile will be different for different types of job.

We have a range of tools and approaches that can be used to assess candidates to determine their suitability for the role and we may use more than one assessment method during the selection process. There may also be more than one stage of selection.

The assessment approach, along with the criteria required for the role, will be outlined in the job vacancy or candidate information pack.

You can find out more about careers in the civil service at Civil Service Careers and find vacancies at Civil Service Jobs.

Minimum standard

In order to use the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative, you must also meet the minimum standard for the role you would like to apply for.

The minimum standard is the combination of experience, behaviours, strengths, abilities and technical/professional skills that a candidate will need to perform effectively in the role.

The minimum standard will be clearly set out in the job vacancy or the candidate information pack. If you are unsure what the minimum standard is, you should contact the recruitment manager for the role.

Multiple stage recruitment

For some jobs, candidates will go through multiple stages, such as online tests, paper sifts, assessment days and interviews.

If the application process for a role has multiple stages, the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative can be applied at each stage, but it will only move the applicant along one stage, and only if they meet the minimum standard at each stage.

High-volume recruitment

It may not always be practicable or appropriate to interview all veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job. For example, in high-volume recruitment, the employer may wish to limit the overall number of interviews by selecting the candidates who best meet the minimum criteria for the job rather than all of those that meet the minimum criteria.

In these circumstances, organisations can select the candidates who best meet the minimum criteria for the job rather than all of those that meet the minimum criteria.

Working in the Civil Service

Many veterans already work in the Civil Service and make a fantastic contribution to it. The Great Place to Work initiative will add to existing entry and experience routes for veterans to join the Civil Service operated by some Departments and the Going Forward Into Employment Scheme and HMRC’s RISE programmes.