Warning at Geneva Summit About the Threat to Human Rights Worldwide

Two senior UN officials warned at the global human rights summit that human rights are at risk of being "trampled" worldwide and that the world faces the danger of a "return of dictators." The fifty-eighth session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, began on Monday, March 6, with speeches from the UN Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Volker Turk, the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the second speaker at the summit, warned that the world is facing the danger of a "return of dictators" and therefore must take immediate action to prevent "very dangerous events." Mr. Turk stated, "Dictators once had the power to order crimes against large segments of the population and send them to their deaths. Be aware that this can happen again." He further warned, "The global consensus on human rights is under pressure from autocratic rulers and oligarchs. We need a collective and comprehensive effort to maintain the fundamental position of human rights and the rule of law in societies, otherwise we will face a dangerous picture." This echoed the statements of Antonio Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, who, as the first speaker at the Geneva summit, warned that human rights worldwide are "suffocating." According to Mr. Guterres, human rights are "the oxygen of humanity," but these rights are currently being "suffocated by autocratic rulers" because "they fear what a powerful society can do." He also referred to "patriarchal governments" that "keep girls out of school and deny women their basic rights"; a reference that could pertain to the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, which has increasingly restricted the rights of women and girls since coming to power again. Guterres continued by stating that warmongers "disregard international laws and the UN Charter" and, through war and violence, "deprive people of their rights to water, food, and education." He also pointed to the "increasing intolerance against groups" such as sexual minorities, indigenous peoples, migrants, and refugees. Antonio Guterres concluded that all these approaches and policies represent "a direct threat to all the mechanisms" that have been "invented and established over the past 80 years to protect human rights." The fifty-eighth session of the UN Human Rights Council, which will continue until April 4 of this year, will see 22 experts and special rapporteurs of the council present reports on their respective areas.