NewsWorldThe UN warned about the setback of human rights around the world

The UN warned about the setback of human rights around the world

Photo: AFP

The UN Secretary General, António Guterres, lamented this Monday in Geneva that human rights are “attacked from all sides” and warned in particular about an unprecedented violation unleashed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which focused much of the opening of sessions of the Human Rights Council (CDH) of the body.

Guterres and the UN’s highest human rights authority, Volker Türk, took the podium at the council in Geneva to denounce a global rise in authoritarianism, repression and wars that is cornering fundamental rights around the world and that, moreover, makes it difficult to tackling pressing issues such as climate change.

“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most massive violation of human rights known today”Guterres said at the beginning of the general debates of the 52nd session of the HRC, which will last almost six weeks.

Guterres in his exhibition Photo AFP
Guterres in his exhibition / Photo: AFP.

For his part, Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, denounced the return of the “old authoritarianism” and the “destructive wars of aggression, from a bygone era, which have global consequences”, alluding to the invasion of Ukraine and the situation in Iran, Syria, Nicaragua, Haiti or Ethiopia, which will focus the debates.

Never before has the HRC met for so long, which reflects the importance of the moment, when the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is celebrated.

The UN chief stressed that this statement is “attacked from all sides” and denounced governments that “undermine its foundations.”

In the last century, much progress was made in terms of human rights and development, but now, Guterres warned, “we are going backwards”, which is why it is necessary to give them “a new impetus”, noting that they are the solution to numerous planetary problems, such as the climate change or the disastrous use of new technologies.

About 150 senior leaders, including the heads of diplomacy from France, Iran and China, will participate in this week’s HRC meetings.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak via video link on Thursday.

The Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, Serguei Riabkov, is expected to speak on that day.

Despite calls from NGOs, it is not certain that the diplomats will leave the room when the Russian official speaks, as they did last year when the head of Russian diplomacy, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, participated by videoconference.

The war in Ukraine will concentrate the debates.

At the end of the session there will be a vote to continue the work of the organization’s investigators on the former Soviet republic, who will present their first report on March 20, after mentioning possible war crimes committed in the framework of the Russian invasion, which was one year old last week.

During a meeting in support of Ukraine on the sidelines of the council, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba denounced the exactions committed by Russia via videoconference.

“The most terrifying crime is the theft of children. We are talking about thousands of them“, he declared. Kuleba accused Moscow of committing a “crime of genocide” and reiterated Ukraine’s desire to set up a special court to try Russian crimes, the AFP news agency reported.

The Ukrainian ambassador to the council, Yevheniia Filipenko, called for a “strengthening” of the resolution, so that the mandate of the investigators is defined.

But it is not guaranteed that the final text will reflect kyiv’s will, due to the possible blockade by other countries.

In Iran, after the repression of the demonstrations triggered by the death in detention of the young Mahsa Amini, the mandate of the UN space rapporteur for the country is at stake.

“The priority is that the mandate be prolonged. But the second priority is that the text reflects the terrible deterioration of the situation that has occurred in recent months since the assassination of Mahsa Amini,” a Western diplomat told AFP.

At the Disarmament Conference – which also began this Monday at the UN headquarters in Geneva – the British Secretary of State for Europe, Leo Docherty, read a statement on behalf of more than 30 countries, in which he pointed out that the Russian invasion “is a threat not only to Ukraine, but also to international peace and security”.

AFP photo
Photo: AFP.

Guterres also alerted this Monday about the number of media workers murdered around the world in 2022, when it had a drastic increase of 50% compared to the average of the last three previous years.

“Freedom of expression is in a state of bankruptcy. The number of media workers murdered in the world increased by 50% last year, a chilling figure”said the head of the UN.

After several years of consecutive declines, 86 journalists and media workers were killed worldwide in 2022. -one homicide every four days-, compared to 55 in 2021, the UN specified,

Despite the war that has been going on in Ukraine for more than a year, the deadliest region for press workers was Latin America and the Caribbean, where 44 murders were recorded, more than half of the total.

If the cases are counted by country, the list is headed by Mexico, with 19 deaths, followed by Ukraine with 10 and Haiti with nine.

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