Geneva /Information Office / 16 March 2015/ The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states are committed to promoting and protecting human rights on the basis of their international and regional obligations under human rights conventions. The GCC countries also seek to achieve comprehensive development within the framework of justice and equality among all citizens to meet their legitimate aspirations, said a GCC statement delivered by HE Qatar's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva Faisal bin Abdullah Al Hanzab before the 28th Session of the Human Rights Council: Item 3 – General Debate. His Excellency said that the GCC states are among the first countries that supported human rights and respected all related international conventions while taking into account their national laws and their cultural and religious specificities. HE Al Hanzab said we all agree that the respect for public order retains sovereignty of each state and requires that the ceiling of freedom must stop with the respect for legislative texts, moral and cultural values, and public norms in every culture and society and in every state to preserve the rights of individual and society without prejudice to the security and public morals so as to prevent violations and abuses that adversely affect the rights of other individuals and society under the pretext of defending human rights. "The Gulf states make clear to all that freedom of opinion and expression should not be used as a pretext for the violation of other rights, as human rights are interrelated and interdependent," His Excellency said. HE Qatar's Permanent Representative to the United Nations said that the GCC delegations observed non-compliance by some mandate-holders, who presented their reports to the Council, with the scope of their mandates in the Code of Conduct under the special procedures of the Human Rights Council and the principle of national sovereignty of countries, hoping that all rapporteurs remain committed to their mandates in an objective and professional way and adhere to the normative foundations that govern their mandates.