GENEVA – The United Nations leader warned yesterday that “the rule of force” was spreading, as the powerful trample on international law and wield artificial intelligence and other technologies to attack human rights.
“Human rights are under a full-scale attack around the world. The rule of law is being outmuscled by the rule of force,” Antonio Guterres told the opening of the UN Human Rights Council’s annual session in Geneva.
The UN secretary-general stressed that “this assault is not coming from the shadows, or by surprise. It is happening in plain sight, and often led by those who hold the greatest power.”
He did not mention specific situations, although he did voice outrage at Russia’s war in Ukraine, where he said more than 15 000 civilians had been killed in four years of violence.
“It is more than past time to end the bloodshed,” he said.Guterres also highlighted the “blatant violations of human rights, human dignity and international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”
He charged that the trajectory in the conflict-torn territories under Israeli occupation was “stark, clear and purposeful: the two-state solution is being stripped away in broad daylight.”
“The international community cannot allow it to happen,” he insisted.
In his final in-person address to the UN’s top rights body, Guterres said the worst conflict-hit areas were not the only places where rights were eroding.
“Around the world, human rights are being pushed back deliberately, strategically and sometimes proudly,” he said.
“We are living in a world where mass suffering is excused away, where humans are used as bargaining chips, where international law is treated as a mere inconvenience, “ he added.
UN rights chief Volker Turk echoed the concerns.
In a “deeply worrying trend”, he warned that “domination and supremacy are making a comeback.”
“A fierce competition for power, control and resources is playing out on the world stage at a rate and intensity unseen for the past 80 years. The use of force to resolve disputes between and within countries is becoming normalised,” he said.
Turk highlighted how “the gears of global power are shifting”, calling for people to band together to protect rights and create “a strong counterbalance to the top-down, autocratic trends we see today”.
– Nampa/AFP