GENEVA — U.N. Secretary-Common António Guterres says human rights are being “suffocated” around the globe, lashing out at voices of division and anger who see them as a barrier to their quest for energy and revenue.
In a speech to the Human Rights Council, Guterres decried Russia’s full-scale battle in Ukraine that marked its third anniversary Monday, appealed for a everlasting cease-fire between Palestinian militants and Israel, and urged respect for Congo’s territorial integrity, amongst different issues.
Whereas reiterating lots of his issues about battle and local weather change, the U.N. chief mentioned he would suggest new concepts to the Safety Council aimed to carry better stability and safety for the individuals of Haiti, the place a multinational safety help mission has been deployed.
Guterres depicted a world the place human rights had been “on the ropes and being pummeled arduous” by warmongers, a “morally bankrupt world monetary system” that favors earnings over planet protections, those that would possibly exploit synthetic intelligence to hurt individuals, and leaders who search to demonize migrants or limit girls’s rights.
Human rights, he mentioned, “are being suffocated by autocrats, crushing opposition as a result of they concern what the really empowered individuals would do,” and “by voices of division and anger who view human rights not as a boon to humanity, however as a barrier to the facility, revenue and management they search.”
Three weeks in the past, U.S. President Donald Trump introduced a U.S. pullout from the council, although the Biden administration had already determined america wouldn’t search a seat on the 47-member-country physique when its newest three-year time period expired on the finish of final yr.
The council meets thrice a yr and the session that opened Monday was set to run till April 4.
U.N. Secretary-Common Antonio Guterres, left, speaks to U.N. Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Tuerk, proper, earlier than the Excessive-Degree Section of the 58th session of the Human Rights Council on the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, Feb. 24, 2025. Credit score: AP/Til Buergy
