At the opening of the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, senior United Nations officials warned of a world in which power politics is increasingly overriding common rules of engagement.
They are urging states to firmly defend universal principles against authoritarian drift and geopolitical manoeuvring.
Speaking on Monday in Geneva, UN Secretary-General António Guterres denounced what he described as the growing ascendancy of the “law of the strongest,” arguing that the rule of law is steadily yielding to the interests of the most powerful actors, to the detriment of human rights.
Addressing the opening of the 61st session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Guterres said attacks on fundamental rights are “neither secret nor carried out by surprise,” but are unfolding “in plain sight,” often driven by those wielding the greatest power. “When human rights erode, everything else eventually collapses,” he warned.
The UN chief expressed particular outrage at the continuation of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has claimed more than 15,000 civilian lives over four years, as well as at violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian territories, where the two-state solution is, in his words, “being swept away.”
He also pointed to protracted crises in Africa, notably in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and across the Sahel.
According to Guterres, the current human rights crisis both reflects and exacerbates other global fault lines: soaring humanitarian needs, shrinking funding, widening inequalities and democratic backsliding marked by restrictions on civic space and the repression of protests, including in Iran.
Calling for an uncompromising defense of the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Secretary-General stressed the need to strengthen international institutions, reform the Security Council and the global financial architecture, and support the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court.
Echoing these concerns, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned of a “resurgence of domination and supremacy,” condemning intensified global competition for power and resources, as well as the growing use of force and disinformation by certain leaders.
For her part, UN General Assembly President Annalena Baerbock called for action, cautioning that major systems “erode slowly, rule by rule,” when silence and inaction prevail. “Action is also a choice — and it is in our hands,” she concluded.
ARD/sf/lb/as/APA