Greece's intervention to the Interactive Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights defenders & on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Human Rights Council,9 March 2015)

"Τhank you Mr. President,
Greece aligns fully itself with the statement delivered by the European Union.
We would like to extend a warm welcome to both Special Rapporteurs. We take this opportunity to thank and express our full support to the colleagues of Denmark and Ireland leading the respective initiatives in the Council.
Normally these two mandates should not be in any way interrelated. In real life, however, there have been cases where human rights defenders have been subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment for their actions in support of human rights. We believe that all such cases should be thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators held accountable.
On torture, we would like to report that Greece has recently ratified the OP-CAT and participated for the first time to the election for the members of the sub-committee a few months ago in this very room. We support the universal ratification of the Convention and we will be joining soon the group of friends of the Convention created by the core group of the respective HRC resolution. We welcome the report of the Special Rapporteur on children deprived of liberty and their vulnerability to human rights violations including torture and ill treatment. Could you elaborate more on concrete mechanisms, including external independent monitoring, which could be envisaged to reduce this vulnerability ?
Turning to the special rapporteur on human rights defenders, we would like to stress the importance we attach on this topic which touches upon the enjoyment of fundamental rights and freedoms such as the freedom of expression. We welcome your work plan and we look forward to further interact with you as its implementation unfolds.
We wish to both special rapporteurs success in their future endeavors.

Thank you Mr President"