Human rights outmuscled by ‘rule of force’ globally, UN chief warns

Antonio Guterres highlights ‘blatant violations of human rights, human dignity and international law’ in Palestine.

“Human rights are under a full-scale attack around the world” as the powerful trample on international law, according to United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“The rule of law is being outmuscled by the rule of force,” he said at the opening of the UN Human Rights Council’s annual session in Geneva on Monday.

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Guterres 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 territory 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, who will complete his second five-year term at the end of this year, 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.”

‘The use of force to resolve disputes between and within countries is becoming normalised,’ UN rights chief Volker Turk tells the UN Human Rights Council [Fabrice Coffrini/AFP]

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk echoed the concerns, saying: “Developments around the world point to a deeply worrying trend: 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,” he warned. “The use of force to resolve disputes between and within countries is becoming normalised.”

“Inflammatory threats against sovereign nations are thrown about with no regard to the fire they could ignite. The laws of war are being brutally violated. Mass civilian suffering – from Sudan to Gaza to Ukraine to Myanmar – is unfolding before our eyes,” he said.

Turk highlighted how “the gears of global power are shifting”, calling for people to band together to protect human rights and create “a strong counterbalance to the top-down, autocratic trends we see today”.