UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres highlights the surprising human rights abuses of Ukraine, Palestine and the DRC.
The UN chief warns that Warmongers and Authoritarians “suffocate” human rights around the world.
Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres portrayed a world where human rights are “being slammed hard on the ropes.”
Emphasizing the devastating effects of conflicts, including the Middle East, Ukraine and the Congo, Guterres focuses on economics, technology, climate change, migration and gender-related abuse.
Guterres called a “morally bankrupt global financial system” that favors profits over planetary protection. He also spoke of people who could exploit artificial intelligence to injure others, as well as leaders who are trying to demonize immigrants and limit women’s rights.
Guterres served on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, saying that the international community must “salvage efforts to end this conflict and achieve just and lasting peace.”
The Gaza ceasefire is “unstable” and the world must “avoid a resumption of hostility,” he continued. “Serious concerns” over the escalation of violence in the occupied West Bank pointed to the violence committed by Israeli settlers and calls for annexation.
He also condemned the terrible human rights abuses of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There, Rwandan-backed M23 rebels have been fighting for recent weeks to control the country’s eastern cities.
Comments are pushing for competing resolutions on efforts to end the war caused by the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, and as the US and Ukraine are pushing for competing solutions , comments came before important UN discussions.
His comments came ahead of critical UN debates later on Monday in New York. This is because the United States is supporting the General Assembly for a resolution that forces Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine and halts the war.
The effort faces opposition in the form of rival texts proposed by Ukraine and its European allies, reflecting the long-standing demands of the United Nations on Russia to end hostilities.
The US proposal does not specifically mention the Russian attack. President Donald Trump recently accused Kiev of being responsible for the invasion and the war that followed.
Washington left empty seats on the UN Human Rights Council on Monday in line with the decision to leave the bodies of Trump, the only intergovernmental organization designed to protect human rights.
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