UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. Volker Türk: The outgoing year was marred by indifference to the lives of civilians Human Rights
Disregard for international law and obvious indifference to the lives of civilians has become one of the key trends of the outgoing year, which was marked by many conflicts. This was stated by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk at a press conference on the eve of Human Rights Day, which is celebrated on December 10.
Disregard for international law
“Disregard for international law and blatant indifference to the lives of civilians and to the preservation of civilian infrastructure have been clearly evident in the conflict in Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Lebanon, as well as in Ukraine, Sudan and Myanmar, to name just a few very glaring examples,” he said. He also recalled the situation in Syria.
According to Türk, 2024 was also characterized by “blurring the lines between reality and fiction,” political sabotage and “gaslighting,” the spread of disinformation, and attempts, through war and disinformation, to distract the public from humanity’s biggest problems – climate change, environmental pollution, and growing inequality in the world.
Huge Number of Casualties
The UN’s top human rights defender said the year had been marred by the huge number of casualties – killed and wounded – in conflicts, on and off the battlefield.
“At least 184 people were killed in violence orchestrated by a powerful gang leader in the Cite Soleil area of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince last weekend alone,” Turk said, adding that the death toll in Haiti this year has reached 5,000.
Arms Transfers and Human Rights Violations
He spoke of the need to stop the flow of weapons to Haiti, Sudan and Myanmar, and to remind those who supply weapons to Israel, non-state armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, and the occupied Palestinian territories that international law requires states to exercise caution: the weapons they supply must not be used to commit violations.
“We must insist that it is unacceptable and illegal to use anti-personnel mines in Ukraine, it is unacceptable to provide them for use, and it is unacceptable to lower the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. Instead, states must make every effort to make it harder, not easier, to use such monstrous weapons in the first place,” Türk said.
States must do everything possible, he stressed, to ensure that senseless conflicts and suffering end.
“The world must turn away from the death spiral of militarized approaches to security and return to mediation, dialogue, negotiation and confidence-building,” he said.
Discrimination and Repression
“We need to show solidarity and insist on protecting the rights of Syrians of all ethnic and religious backgrounds, Ukrainians and Russians who have suffered repression, Palestinians and Israelis, Sudanese, people of all ethnicities in Myanmar, people on all sides of the conflicts,” the High Commissioner added.
He called for a return to the values and principles that underpin human rights and an investment in their protection.
“We must all uphold, protect, preserve and strengthen the values of human rights. And support those who are at the forefront of this problem – human rights defenders, civil society groups and grassroots movements for human rights,” Türk said.
He stressed that people around the world are trying to uphold human rights, joining forces to fight discrimination, to find like-minded people, to counter disinformation.
The Duty of the State
“People are calling on their leaders to work for equality, justice and peace,” the High Commissioner said.
“States have a legal obligation to prevent harm that can be done to people and their rights,” he added.
Türk also recalled that in Yemen Fifty humanitarian and human rights workers, including eight UN staff, were arbitrarily detained and remain in detention and unable to be reached. ‘This is unacceptable,’ the UN’s human rights chief said.