Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Türk underscored that international human rights and humanitarian law “are our mainstay against unbridled power.”
Speaking at the midway point of his four-year mandate, Mr. Türk veered from his usual overview of specific country situations and instead offered broader reflections about the current state of human rights.
Choose the path
“It seems to me we are at a fork in the road,” he said.
“We can either continue on our current path — a treacherous ‘new normal’ — and sleepwalk into a dystopian future. Or we can wake up and turn things around for the better, for humanity and the planet.”
Against endless escalation
He said that new normal “cannot be endless, vicious military escalation and increasingly horrifying, technologically ‘advanced’ methods of warfare, control, and repression.”
Neither can it mean “continued indifference to deepening inequalities within and between States.”
“It cannot be the free-for-all spread of disinformation, smothering facts and the ability to make free and informed choices. Heated rhetoric and simplistic fixes, erasing context, nuance, and empathy. Paving the way for hate speech and the dire consequences that inevitably follow,” he added.
A different choice
Additionally, “the ‘new normal’ cannot be that national sovereignty is twisted to shroud – or excuse – horrific violations. Or the discrediting of multilateral institutions or attempts to rewrite the international rules, chipping away at universally agreed norms.”
Insisting that “this cannot be the world we want”, Mr. Türk said “we can and must make a different choice” by reconnecting with our common humanity, nature and the planet.
“In other words, we could choose to be guided by human rights and the universal values that we all share,” he said.
Leadership crisis
Mr. Türk told the Council that “human rights are not in crisis. But political leadership needed to make them a reality is.”
He said that “in every region around the world, we see deep-seated power dynamics at play to grab or hold on to power, at the expense of universal human rights.”
For example, despite advances in women’s rights, “the shadow of patriarchy still looms large” and there have been alarming regressions on gender equality issues, with Afghanistan representing the most extreme case.
Migrants as scapegoats
Societies continue to face racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, which are “propped up by entrenched power structures, vested interests, institutional inertia and harmful stereotypes, often rooted in legacies of colonialism and enslavement,” he added.
“Then there are those politicians, amplified by some media outlets, who scapegoat migrants, refugees, and minorities, as we have seen, for example, around electoral periods in Austria, France, Germany, Hungary, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, to name a few,” he said.
Mr. Türk also warned against the threat posed by “improperly or insufficiently regulated digital technologies”, which also includes exploitation of personal data.
He said human rights must be “front and centre” in regulation efforts, while also working to stop online violence, disinformation, hate speech and incitement to hatred.
A young boy with the Bangla word for ‘free’ written on his cheek is carried by an adult at a recent demonstration in Bangladesh.
The power of human rights
Although pointing out how entrenched power structures and the misuse of power have negatively impacted people’s human rights, Mr. Turk also spoke about how “human rights are regulators and correctors of power dynamics gone awry.”
He cited the recent situation in Bangladesh, where “the student movement carried human rights as its torch”.
The High Commissioner said his Office, OHCHR, is supporting the new authorities there, including by conducting an independent fact-finding mission into recent alleged violations, and on accountability, processes of reconciliation and healing, and other essential reforms.
Advice for voters
With many countries holding elections this year, Mr. Türk offered advice to citizens going to the polls.
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“I urge all voters to keep in mind the issues that matter most to them – be it a home, education for their children, their health or job, justice, their family and loved ones, the environment, to be free from violence, tackling corruption, being heard. These are all human rights issues,” he said.
War in Sudan
Mr. Türk also recalled that this year marks the 75th anniversary of the four Geneva Conventions, which elaborate the laws of war, while the UN Charter, with its promise “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” was adopted almost 80 years ago.
“And yet, here we are,” he remarked. “With a crossing of innumerable red lines, or readiness to toe right up to them.”
He said Sudan “is experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian and protection crises, fuelled by longstanding impunity, a firestorm of zero-sum power struggles, competing economic interests and instrumentalization of ethnic tensions.”
Estimates indicate that over 20,000 people have been killed, he said, and “the world cannot let this continue.”
A family in Gaza moves across a wasteland of destruction.
Gaza conflict fears
“We know that wars spill over, and into, future generations, fostering repeated cycles of hatred if their causes remain unaddressed. Sadly, the war in Gaza is the quintessential example,” he continued.
He told the Council that ending the war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority.
“Equally, the wider situation of illegality across the occupied Palestinian territory deriving from Israel’s policies and practices, as so clearly spelled out by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its Advisory Opinion in July, must be comprehensively addressed,” he said.
He stressed that States must not – cannot – accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the UN Security Council and orders of the International Court of Justice.
Concern for Ukraine
The human rights chief also addressed the conflict in Ukraine, where “civilians are trapped in cycles of terror, through ongoing attacks by the Russian Federation”.
Civilian facilities, such as schools and hospitals, have been struck, and energy infrastructure targeted, and he expressed fear for the coming winter season.
Crisis in Myanmar
Meanwhile, “Myanmar’s crisis continues to plumb the depths of inhumanity,” he said, pointing to recent air strikes, mass arrests and continued reports of extrajudicial killings, amid stifling impunity.
“Civilians are paying the heaviest price, with some of the highest numbers of civilian casualties being reported since the current crisis began in 2021, and the Rohingya community violently cornered in northern Rakhine State, with nowhere safe to turn,” he said.
He added that in many of these situations, even minimal humanitarian aid to civilians is instrumentalized, diverted or blocked, as is access for human rights monitors.
“For those of us engaged in this work, it is as if we are standing on the banks of a river watching people drown, with lifebuoys piled at our feet,” he said.
Reminder of States’ obligations
Mr. Türk reminded the Council that States have designed international human rights and humanitarian law to preserve and guarantee our common humanity.
“These norms are our mainstay against unbridled power,” he said.
He stressed that all parties to conflicts and other States, particularly those with influence, must do everything they can to bring violations to an end.
“One concrete action would be for States, in line with their obligations under the Geneva Conventions and human rights due diligence, to refrain from exporting or transferring arms to a party to an armed conflict, where there is a real risk that they would be used in breach of international humanitarian law,” he said.
In this regard, the High Commissioner was encouraged that some States have already taken steps in this direction.