UNITED NATIONS — The UN human rights chief warned Thursday that the world is at a particularly dangerous moment in history, with contempt and disrespect for human rights international law “reaching a deafening crescendo.”
Volker Türk said that conflicts are spread and intensify and humanitarian and human rights laws are being ‘trampled under widespread impunity’.
He sharply criticized the Israeli authorities for allowing this Palestinians in Gaza reaching “catastrophic levels of hunger” but also mentioned human rights abuses in Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti and Myanmar – and said he could name many more conflicts.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights spoke of this critical moment “for human life, for human rights and for the stability and prosperity” of countries to reporters on Thursday and in a briefing for the General Assembly’s human rights committee on Wednesday.
Türk said the reason the world is in such a crisis of conflict and violations of international law is that the international structures painstakingly built after World War II and the Holocaust to protect human rights and prevent atrocities are start to erode.
“Then we have to be very concerned, because the erosion leads to even more erosion,” and when civilian casualties are about to be accepted in conflicts, “and you get a little used to the fact that war is the answer to everything, I fear for the world – and I fear in particular for human rights,” he said.
Turk was especially critical of the humanitarian situation in Gazathus repeating his warning to Israel starvation of civilians in wars is prohibited by international humanitarian law “and constitutes a war crime.”
Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Danny Danon stressed Wednesday during an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting on Gaza that his country’s humanitarian efforts remain “as comprehensive as ever.” He criticized the council for focusing on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, while Israeli civilians are “targeted daily by those who seek our destruction.”
Danon said Israel has delivered more than 1 million tons of aid, including 700,000 tons of food, to Gaza since launched its military operation after Hamas attacks in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. He emphasized that the real problem is Hamas, which he said has “hijacked aid and confiscated it for their own purposes.”
Türk said the reality on the ground is that only a trickle of aid is entering Gaza. He cited reports that Israeli forces are preventing aid from reaching the north, where Israel is waging a ground offensive.
The UN rights chief also said Israeli evacuation orders appear to be targeted cut off the north and cited “serious concerns about a large-scale forced transfer of civilians,” which would amount to a war crime.
As militants from Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon take military action against each other on another front, he said, “the risk of a full-fledged regional war remains very high – a war that could engulf the lives and human rights of millions of people.”
Elsewhere, Türk said, wars and extreme violence are destroying lives.
“In Ukraine, almost a thousand days ago The large-scale invasion of Russia“We continue to see terrible destruction, marked by recurring human rights violations and war crimes,” he said.
In Sudan, he said, the more than years of war between rival governments and paramilitary forces vying for power has forced “as many as 10 million people to flee their homes” and left more than 25 million facing acute hunger.
In Haiti, Türk said his office has documented more than 3,950 killings, 1,835 injuries and 1,150 kidnappings as a result of gang violence so far this year.
And in BurmaHe said: “Air and artillery attacks on civilians, mass arrests and reports of extrajudicial killings, a blatant violation of human rights and humanitarian law, continue unabated amid stifling impunity.”
Wars can only end when human rights are respected, Türk emphasizes, and restoring that respect “is now more important than ever.”