DM Monitoring
UNITED NATIONS: United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk Monday condemned Israeli officials’ use of “genocidal rhetoric” regarding Gaza, calling on the international community to take urgent action to “end the carnage” in the devastated enclave.
In his address opening the UN Human Rights Council’s 60th session, Turk said Israel’s operations have inflicted “indescribable suffering and wholesale destruction” on Palestinian civilians, while also obstructing aid.
“I am horrified by the open use of genocidal rhetoric and the disgraceful dehumanization of Palestinians by senior Israeli officials,” he stressed, calling Gaza “a graveyard.”
The UN rights chief also condemned what he called a worldwide “glorification of violence” which is underway, as well as “coordinated efforts” to undermine fundamental birthrights. “It is time for States to wake up and to act,” he insisted.
“No one is safe when human rights are under attack,” Turk told the 47-member Council, warning that the rules of war “are being shredded”.
“Some States are becoming an extension of their ruler’s personal power,” he insisted.
The High Commissioner decried that “pro-war propaganda is everywhere”, from military parades to “ramped-up rhetoric” from leaders.
“Sadly, there are no peace parades or ministries of peace, he stressed, while calling for countries to stand firm against the growing “erosion” of international law.
Turk also defended the importance of standing behind multilateral accords as “the foundation of peace, our global order and our daily lives, from trade rules to the global internet, to our fundamental rights”.
Today, governments “are disregarding, disrespecting and disengaging” the existing rules-based world order that was established after 1945 to prevent another world war, the UN rights chief insisted, in a call for accountability.
The danger is that when States ignore violations of the law, “they become normalized,” Turk said. “When States apply the law inconsistently, they undermine the legal order everywhere. It is time for States to wake up and to act.”
Condemning the continued illegal detention of United Nations staff in Yemen as a “direct attack on the UN system”, he also called the United States’ withdrawal “from the Paris Agreement and from global bodies, including this Council…deeply regrettable”, noting that other States were following suit.
The High Commissioner also warned of the negative consequences of the decision by Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to leave the Ottawa Treaty on land mines, while identifying the “new trend of disparaging” the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which all countries had agreed to a decade ago.
As is usual at the start of Council sessions, the High Commissioner highlighted situations of concern around the world, from Afghanistan – where the “erasure” of women and girls from public life “is almost complete” – to Haiti which is “plunging deeper into lawlessness; Nigeria, which is seeing a resurgence of Boko Haram extremism; and Syria – whose transition to peace remains “fragile”.
In Ukraine, following the largest drone assault of the conflict, Russia’s full-scale invasion “has turned even more deadly”.
In Sudan, besieged El Fasher is under constant bombardment and the risk of further atrocities remains, Turk said, while in Myanmar, four years since the military coup, people remain caught up in “a harrowing human rights calamity”.
Turning to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, “damning evidence” indicates “grave violations and abuses” by all parties to the conflict, the High Commissioner continued, while Gaza faces Israel’s “mass killing” of Palestinian civilians
“We are failing the people of Gaza…Where are the decisive steps to prevent genocide?” he asked. “Why are countries not doing more to avert atrocity crimes? They must stop the flow to Israel of arms that risk violating the laws of war.”
Continuing his tour d’horizon of country situations of concern in addition to thematic issues, Turk said that India has deported groups of Rohingya Muslims by land and sea.
Similarly, Germany, Greece, Hungary, and other European countries “have also sought to limit the right to seek asylum”, Turk insisted. He took note of concerns about the United States’ reported agreement with El Salvador, South Sudan, Eswatini, Rwanda and others, to deport third country nationals, and underlined Kuwait’s decision to revoke citizenship for thousands of people in recent years, “leaving many stateless”.
On imminent national elections across Africa, Turk also cited serious concerns over polling preparations in Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda.
“In many of these countries, the authorities are resorting to harassment, exclusion or detention of opposition leaders; restrictions on media freedom; bans on peaceful protest; and crackdowns on human rights defenders,” he said.
The UN rights chief also urged the Ethiopian authorities to ensure conditions for free, fair and inclusive elections, amid concerns about arbitrary detentions of journalists.
As part of the UN’s efforts to improve and promote human rights everywhere, Turk urged all countries to do more so that “every child – whether a future farmer, digital worker, doctor or shopkeeper” understands that human rights “are our birthright”.
He added: “The vast majority of people around the world are crying out for human rights and freedoms…No one is safe when human rights are under attack. Abuses committed against one group are always part of a broader pattern of oppression and lead to the wider erosion of fundamental freedoms”.
