High Commissioner for Human Rights Highlights the Cruelty of War and the Urgent Need to Find the Way Back to Peace as he Presents his Global Update at the Opening of the Fifty-Sixth Regular Session of the Human Rights Council

The Human Rights Council this morning opened its fifty-sixth regular session, which will be held from 18 June to 12 July, hearing Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, present his global update on the situation of human rights around the world.

Mr. Türk said it pained him to start the global update with the cruelty of war. Since last March, where he had spoken of the right to peace, conflicts had only intensified. In 2023, data gathered by the Office of the High Commissioner showed the number of civilian deaths in armed conflict had soared by 72 per cent. Horrifyingly, the data indicated that the proportion of women killed in 2023 doubled and that of children tripled, compared to the year prior. There was an urgent need to find the way back to peace, in line with the United Nations Charter and international law.

The High Commissioner said he was appalled by the disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law by parties to the conflict in Gaza. More than 120,000 people in Gaza, overwhelmingly women and children, had been killed or injured since 7 October, as a result of the intensive Israeli offensives. Since Israel escalated its operations into Rafah in early May, almost one million Palestinians had been forcibly displaced, while aid delivery and humanitarian access deteriorated further.

The situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was dramatically deteriorating. As of 15 June, 528 Palestinians, 133 of them children, had been killed by Israeli security forces since October, in many cases raising serious concerns of unlawful killings. In the same period, 23 Israelis had been killed in the West Bank and Israel in clashes by Palestinians, including eight members of Israeli security forces. Palestinian armed groups continued to hold many hostages, and, in some cases in densely populated areas, putting them and Palestinian civilians at further risk. They must be released. The patterns raised serious concerns about the commission of war crimes and other atrocity crimes. He said the escalating situation between Lebanon and Israel was concerning.

Mr. Türk said the situation in Ukraine continued to deteriorate. The recent ground offensive by Russian armed forces into Ukraine’s Kharkiv region had destroyed entire communities. Repeated waves of large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure had destroyed 68 per cent of Ukraine’s electricity production capacity, bringing the system to a dangerous tipping point, especially ahead of winter.

The High Commissioner highlighted a number of other human rights situations and issues around the world.

Omar Zniber, President of the Human Rights Council, opened the session. Among other procedural issues, he noted that working hours of the Council had been adjusted on 20 June, with the morning meeting beginning at 9 a.m. and concluding at 12 noon. This was to accommodate the high-level informal Presidential discussion on the link between climate change, food security and health security, and their impact on the enjoyment of human rights.

Cuba and Eritrea, in the name of the Group of Friends in Defence of the United Nations Charter, said in advance that they did not recognise the conclusions of the informal debate in question, and that this should not be considered a precedent.

The webcast of the Human Rights Council meetings can be found here All meeting summaries can be found here. Documents and reports related to the Human Rights Council’s fifty-sixth regular session can be found here.

The Council then started an interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner on Myanmar, followed by an enhanced interactive dialogue on the report of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan.

Opening Remarks by the President

OMAR ZNIBER, President of the United Nations Human Rights Council, opened the fifty-sixth regular session of the Human Rights Council. He welcomed the generous support of donors to the Voluntary Technical Assistance Trust Fund, which supported the participation of least developed countries and small island developing States in the work of the Council.

Mr. Zniber, addressing procedural matters, noted that the draft programme of work for the session could be found on the Council website and the Extranet. The programme of work was a living document. Delegates were encouraged to visit the “SCHED” website or application for the latest updates.

This session would take place over four weeks. Working hours of the Council had been adjusted on 20 June, with the morning meeting beginning at 9 a.m. and concluding at 12 noon. This was to accommodate the high-level informal Presidential discussion on the link between climate change, food security and health security, and their impact on the enjoyment of human rights.

A constructive, safe and respectful atmosphere was essential for the Council’s sessions, Mr. Zniber said. However, the Council’s mandate holders were sometimes subjected to personal attacks or threats in the course of their work. Disagreement with mandate holders and their reports could always be expressed, but it was unacceptable that they were insulted or personally attacked or threatened when discharging their mandates. Mr. Zniber said that, as President, he would support them against any inappropriate attack.

Similarly, the active participation of representatives of civil society and national human rights institutions was an essential component of the Human Rights Council. As President, he would follow up on all reported allegations of reprisals and intimidation, committed against individuals or groups, who had cooperated with the Council and its mechanisms. He called on everyone to take all necessary steps to prevent such acts from taking place in the first place and to ensure that they were promptly and seriously addressed in case they did occur.

The Council had a zero tolerance for any form of harassment, including sexual harassment. The Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva had pledged to implement the “Code of Conduct to prevent harassment, including sexual harassment, at United Nations system events” and Maira Macdonal Alvarez was serving the Council as Gender Focal Point, including for cases of sexual and gender-based harassment in the Council. All complaints would be dealt with promptly.

High Commissioner’s Global Update

VOLKER TÜRK, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said it pained him to start the global update with the cruelty of war. Since last March, where he had spoken of the right to peace, conflicts had only intensified. In 2023, data gathered by the Office of the High Commissioner showed the number of civilian deaths in armed conflict had soared by 72 per cent. Horrifyingly, the data indicated that the proportion of women killed in 2023 doubled and that of children tripled, compared to the year prior.

Mr. Türk was appalled by the disregard for international human rights and humanitarian law by parties to the conflict in Gaza. More than 120,000 people in Gaza, overwhelmingly women and children, had been killed or injured since 7 October, as a result of the intensive Israeli offensives. Since Israel escalated its operations into Rafah in early May, almost one million Palestinians had been forcibly displaced, while aid delivery and humanitarian access deteriorated further.

The situation in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was dramatically deteriorating. As of 15 June, 528 Palestinians, 133 of them children, had been killed by Israeli security forces since October, in many cases raising serious concerns of unlawful killings. In the same period, 23 Israelis had been killed in the West Bank and Israel in clashes by Palestinians, including eight members of Israeli security forces. Palestinian armed groups continued to hold many hostages, and, in some cases in densely populated areas, putting them and Palestinian civilians at further risk. They must be released. The patterns raised serious concerns about the commission of war crimes and other atrocity crimes. Mr. Türk called for the binding decisions of the Security Council and of the International Court of Justice to be respected. The occupation must end, accountability must be served and the internationally agreed two-State solution must become a reality.

The escalating situation between Lebanon and Israel was concerning; 401 people had reportedly been killed in Lebanon, including paramedics and journalists. Over 90,000 people had been displaced in Lebanon, and over 60,000 had been displaced in Israel with 25 Israeli fatalities. Mr. Türk called for a cessation of hostilities and for actors with influence to take all measures to avert a full-scale war.

The situation in Ukraine continued to deteriorate. The recent ground offensive by Russian armed forces into Ukraine’s Kharkiv region had destroyed entire communities. Repeated waves of large-scale attacks on energy infrastructure had destroyed 68 per cent of Ukraine’s electricity production capacity, bringing the system to a dangerous tipping point, especially ahead of winter.

Sudan was being destroyed by two warring parties and affiliated groups, who stoked inter-ethnic tensions, denied humanitarian assistance, arrested human rights defenders, and cast aside the rights of their own people. Both Generals were put on notice for their responsibility in the commission of possible war crimes. It was vital that ongoing mediation efforts, including by the African Union, brought the conflict to an end.

During his mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo in April, Mr. Türk felt the immense suffering of civilians in the east, including those living in camps for internally displaced people with continued attacks by armed groups. Violence needed to end.

While there was a decrease in the intensity of hostilities in the Syrian Arab Republic compared to past years, there was no apparent end in sight to the conflict. With ongoing killings of civilians, sexual and gender-based violence, and arbitrary arrests of peaceful protesters. Syrian returnees continued to face risks, such as arbitrary arrest and detention and extortion.

In countries that had undergone unconstitutional changes of power, including Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, transitions were becoming longer and longer, without meaningful national dialogue processes and with increasing restrictions on civic space. The social contract between the transitional authorities and the people must urgently be restored.

South Sudan was exhausted by inter-communal violence and revenge killings, widespread attacks on civilians, extrajudicial executions, conflict-related sexual violence, food insecurity, and large-scale displacement. The Government needed to prioritise accountability, address localised violence, enhance the protection of civilians, investigate all alleged violations, and bring perpetrators to justice.

In Haiti, decades of exclusion, poor governance, corruption, and trafficking in weapons had contributed to endemic gang violence. Mr. Türk called for the urgent deployment of the Multinational Security Support Mission in Haiti, with human rights safeguards, to support the national police and bring security to the Haitian people.

There was an urgent need to find the way back to peace, in line with the United Nations Charter and international law. As of the end of May 2024, the gap between humanitarian funding requirements and available resources stood at 40.8 billion USD, contrasted with the almost 2.5 trillion USD in global military expenditure in 2023, a 6.8 per cent increase from 2022. War came with a hefty price tag.

The far-reaching impact of war and conflict on the environment was also undeniable, on top of the immense challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution; 61 million people in southern Africa were affected by El Niño-induced drought and extreme weather worsened by climate change. Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe had declared a state of disaster, with more countries likely to follow.

The climate emergency disproportionately affected the world’s poor and most marginalised, notably in small island developing States, least developed countries, and landlocked developing countries. Integrating human rights into environmental analysis and modelling would allow anticipation of the types of issues that would arise, inform decision-making, and minimise the worst impacts.

Globally, inequality had seen the largest increase in three decades. According to Oxfam, the wealth of the world’s five richest billionaires had more than doubled since the start of the decade, while 60 per cent of humanity had grown poorer; 4.8 billion people were poorer than they were in 2019, while the wealth gap between men and women globally stood at 100 trillion USD.

While Sri Lanka’s macro-economic situation had improved, the impacts of the economic crisis with associated austerity measures were affecting the poorest and already marginalised groups the most. Between 2021 and 2023, the poverty rate doubled from 13.1 to 25.9 per cent and was expected to remain over the next few years.

During his recent visit to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mr. Türk heard about the drastic impact debt servicing was having on public spending on social services. In visits to both that country and Malaysia, he welcomed the increased engagement with the Office and the United Nations human rights mechanisms and looked forward to building on it further.

In Argentina, recent measures risked undermining human rights protection, including cuts to public spending affecting the most marginalised, the closure of State institutions dedicated to women’s rights, and access to justice. Mr. Türk urged the authorities to place human rights at the centre of their policy making.

Globally, economic systems needed to be brough in line with human rights, including the right to development. Some promising initiatives were underway, such as the Bridgetown Initiative, the proposed new Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development 15 per cent global minimum tax rate on multinational companies, and the global 2 per cent minimum wealth tax on billionaires, proposed by Brazil as the current G20 chair. It was hoped these initiatives were further triggers of the real transformation that was needed.

Systemic racism against people of African descent was perpetuated by systems and structures rooted in the legacies of colonialism and enslavement, manifesting in socio-economic inequalities. While countries like Brazil, Colombia and the United States were taking important steps to address racial discrimination, issues remained, including racial profiling, high unemployment, over-representation and differential treatment in detention, and excessive use of lethal force by law enforcement. The Office’s “Agenda towards transformative change for racial justice and equality”, and the recommendations of United Nations mechanisms, offered a comprehensive response to systemic issues. Mr. Türk supported calls to proclaim a Second International Decade for People of African Descent starting in 2025.

By 2030, women were forecasted to represent the majority of the extreme poor among those aged 15 and above, an increasing gender poverty gap. Mr. Türk deplored the ongoing systemic persecution of women and girls in Afghanistan, particularly regarding their rights to education, employment and freedom of movement. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, reports continued to be received of violent crackdowns, including widespread arrests, against women and girls for not wearing the hijab as instructed, as new measures to enforce the hijab law were implemented.

No country was immune from regression in women’s rights. Everyone needed to be vigilant in countering this pushback. Mr Türk also warned of the dangers of anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim bigotry, as well as divisive disinformation that cast migrants and refugees as the scapegoats for wider challenges in society.

According to data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, 72 journalists and media workers were killed in 2023, in large part in conflict situations. Data from the Office showed that at least 42 indigenous human rights defenders were killed in 2023 in 11 countries. The efforts of the Government in Guatemala to establish new mechanisms to strengthen protection of human rights defenders, journalists and indigenous leaders were welcomed.

In Yemen, Mr. Türk was deeply worried about the well-being of 13 United Nations national staff who, along with over 50 staff from national and international non-governmental organizations and civil society, had been arbitrarily detained by the de facto authorities since 6 June. Six of them, including one woman, were the Office’s national staff and had not had contact with their families, nor had the United Nations been able to access them. The de facto authorities must immediately and unconditionally release them, and harassment of their families must stop.

The situation in Belarus continued to be very troubling, with over 1,300 people remaining imprisoned on politically motivated and vague charges. The authorities in Azerbaijan were urged to review, in line with international human rights law, all cases of journalists, activists, and other individuals arbitrarily deprived of their liberty and to ensure their protection against ill-treatment.

A worrying trend in terms of civic space was the adoption of the so-called “transparency” or “foreign influence” laws in over 50 countries, including in the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, India, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Slovakia and Türkiye. These laws risked having serious chilling effects on the work of civil society, freedom of expression and of association.

In recent months, in Peru, the Congress had advanced a series of legislative initiatives that could undermine judicial and electoral independence, reverse important gains on transitional justice and on women´s political participation and restrict freedom of association and expression. In Mexico, Mr. Türk called on the authorities to ensure accountability for the violence and killings that occurred during the electoral period. The Office had continued to engage with China on a range of human rights issues, including the serious concerns identified in the Xinjiang region. The Office recently visited Beijing to discuss problematic provisions in China’s counterterrorism and criminal laws, as well as the application of national security laws in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

In the Southeast Asia region, there was a pattern emerging of transnational repression whereby human rights defenders seeking refuge in neighbouring countries had been subject to rendition and refoulement or disappeared and even killed. There were indications this trend could become a global one and all States were urged to have zero tolerance for such actions and to ensure full accountability of their security forces.

Mr. Türk shared some developments which could provide some hope. Last year’s commemoration of the seventy-fifth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights demonstrated the strength of the commitment to the universality and indivisibility of human rights. Almost 800 pledges were made to advance economic, social, and cultural rights, the right to development, the right to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, and civil and political rights. Many had already been acted upon, including 29 treaty ratifications made by 20 States, with Kazakhstan, South Africa, and Thailand having fulfilled their Human Rights 75 ratification pledges.

Mr. Türk also welcomed recent ratifications of human rights treaties by Bhutan, Côte d’Ivoire, the Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and Tuvalu. Morocco, Paraguay and Portugal led the launch of the international network of national mechanisms for implementation, reporting and follow-up in May, which was their joint Human Rights 75 pledge. Several countries advanced new bills or reformed their comprehensive anti-discrimination laws, in line with their Human Rights 75 pledges. Adoption of legislation against gender-based violence in Dominica and Saint Lucia was also welcome.

The international and regional human rights systems, despite significant constraints, continued to deliver for people. Human rights treaty bodies had been groundbreaking on many issues, notably on the environment. Their work was bolstered by that of regional and international courts and tribunals.

Mr. Türk welcome the increasing commitment of numerous countries to advancing the human rights agenda, despite geopolitical headwinds. He recognised the openness of Ecuador to strengthening the Office’s presence there, and that of Honduras to working with the Office to address systemic challenges, ranging from transitional justice initiatives to land and environmental protection. Mr. Türk also appreciated the commitment to establish a United Nations human rights regional office for the Caribbean Community and a country office in Mozambique.

One overarching concern was the increasingly aggressive verbal attacks, threats and reprisals, and virulent social media campaigns against international institutions and mechanisms, including the United Nations, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Special Procedures mandate holders, the International Court of Justice, and the International Criminal Court. This was unacceptable. With focus now on the Pact for the Future, Mr. Türk urged all States to ensure that the common commitment to human rights was reflected powerfully in the Summit’s outcomes. A strong and effective human rights system was key to effective multilateral cooperation, and to building a better future for people and planet. The Office was ready to play its part.

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