Human Rights Key to Peace in World ‘More Ready for War’, High Commissioner Tells Third Committee, Urging States to Allow Entry of Monitors

Human rights offer effective solutions in a world increasingly “ready for war”, a top United Nations official told the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) today, emphasizing the importance of monitoring for early warning, prevention, accountability and peace amid persistent violations of international law and widespread impunity.  

“Warfare — if its causes are not addressed — will metastasize into new battle zones,” and its effects will amplify in future generations, warned Volker Türk, High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The prolonged oppression of the Palestinian people and repeating cycles of hatred, death and destruction in the Middle East are “a tragic demonstration of this fact”, he asserted.  Over 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza — mostly women and children — and nearly 1.9 million people have been displaced as the relentless Israeli military offensive continues.  “I cannot underscore enough the desperate survival conditions of Palestinians in Gaza,” he said, noting that adequate humanitarian aid has been systematically denied. 

More recently, he continued, months of exchanges of missiles between Hizbullah and Israeli forces along the Israel-Lebanon border have escalated into spiraling violence of “much greater scale and even greater danger”, with Israeli troops now present in Lebanon.  The toll on civilian lives and infrastructure is getting heavier by the day.  “The involvement of Iran and non-State actors in Yemen and Iraq creates the threat of a wider and more terrible war — one that could engulf the lives, the hopes and the human rights of people across the entire region,” he cautioned.

Meanwhile in Ukraine — almost 1,000 days since the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion — the war has devastated people’s lives and will leave a legacy of trauma for generations to come.  In Sudan, a vicious conflict has raged since April 2023, forcing over 10 million people to flee their homes and pushing over 25 million people into acute hunger.  Myanmar’s crisis continues to plumb the depths of inhumanity, with further recent air and artillery strikes on civilians, mass arrests and reports of extrajudicial killings continuing unabated.  Civilians are paying the heaviest price, with some of the highest numbers of casualties reported since the crisis began in 2021, and the Rohingya community violently cornered in northern Rakhine State, with nowhere safe to turn. 

Noting that across these conflicts, access for human rights monitors is blocked in many places, he underscored that the monitoring work by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is pivotal to early warning, prevention, accountability and peace.  He detailed the Office’s practical projects to develop human rights-based approaches to taxation and public spending in Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Honduras, Jordan, Kenya, Malawi, Serbia, Uruguay, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  He also spotlighted a key document drafted by OHCHR titled Human Rights: A Path for Solutions, which “signposts the route towards renewed action for peace”.

What speakers say:

• The Pact for the Future “lacks ambitious recommendations” to bolster the human rights system
• Country-specific mechanisms violate the principles of non-interference and non-selectivity
• The use of unilateral coercive measures “a massive, flagrant violation of human rights”

In the following interactive dialogue, numerous delegates voiced concern over human rights violations globally and States’ disregard for international humanitarian law.

In the context of Israel’s assault in Gaza, said the observer for the State of Palestine, the UN — including the International Court of Justice — has been clear from day one on the rules of international law.  “And yet, for months, the massacres have continued with full impunity,” she said.

Also calling for accountability, Ukraine’s delegate underscored that torture, sexual violence and other atrocities committed by the Russian Federation must stop, and full access must be granted to humanitarian mechanisms.  In this regard, she expressed support for OHCHR’s monitoring and investigative mechanisms, which provide evidence-based information on war crimes and human rights violations committed by the Russian Federation in her country since 2014. Similarly, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine plays a crucial role in documenting Moscow’s violations during its ongoing full-scale invasion. 

Her counterpart from Georgia shed light on the Russian Federation’s illegal occupation of the Abkhazia and Tskhinvali regions, adding that grave human rights violations on the ground continue to cause immense suffering for the conflict-affected people.  While these territories remain inaccessible for international human rights monitoring mechanisms, human rights violations — including violation of the right to life, torture and ill-treatment, kidnapping and lengthy arbitrary detentions — occur systematically, he stressed.

The representative of the Russian Federation said that from 2014 to 2023 — as a result of Kyiv’s actions — 5,768 people died — however, this was not mentioned in High Commissioner’s report, she pointed out, adding that it lacks concrete details on the civilian deaths in her country. 

The representative of the United Kingdom sounded the alarm over the disproportionate impact of the conflict in Israel, Gaza and Lebanon on women and children.  Accordingly, he called for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages and the rapid provision of humanitarian aid.  He also voiced concern over the widespread and systematic use of torture against Ukrainian prisoners of war.

While underlining the need to seize the opportunity that the Summit of the Future provides, Canada’s representative said that the Pact for the Future “lacks ambitious recommendations on how to bolster the human rights system”.  Nevertheless, he asked:  “If we fail to bolster human rights today, how can we ensure the protection of future generations?”

“For many countries, the right to development is fundamental to achieving a dignified standard of living for all citizens,” said Zimbabwe’s delegate.  Underscoring that “true human rights cannot exist in isolation”, he said that addressing one at the expense of others jeopardizes the collective goal of achieving a just society.

The representative of the United States expressed regret that China rejected OHCHR’s recommendations in the 2022 Xinjiang assessments, condemning the genocide and crimes against humanity there as well as human rights abuses in Tibet and across China.

China’s delegate rejected “the lies fabricated by the United States”, adding that the so-called assessment report is a product of pure political coercion by London and Washington, D.C., already rejected by the Human Rights Council.  Meanwhile, he said, the United States is turning a blind eye to the death of over 40,000 civilians in Gaza.

Several other speakers raised alarm about the politicization of human rights, with the representative of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea stressing that country-specific mechanisms violate the principles of non-interference and non-selectivity.  In the same vein, Iran’s delegate rejected any mandates reporting on his country’s human rights situation, questioning their independence. 

The speaker for Belarus added that the use of unilateral coercive measures to exert political pressure on States is unacceptable. Similarly, Venezuela’s delegate underscored that States must not resort to “the illegal and immoral” imposition of unilateral measures.  Citing the blockage imposed by the United States on his country as “a massive, flagrant violation of human rights”, Cuba’s representative stressed that “the right to development is a universal right and a priority to the countries of the Global South”.

Delegates also heard a briefing by Geneviève Savigny, Chair of the Working Group on the rights of peasants and other people working in rural areas, recently established by a 2023 Human Rights Council resolution recognizing the essential contribution of peasants and other people working in rural areas — including in the preservation of biodiversity.

She said the Group promotes the implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants.  The Declaration is the first international instrument to define the term “peasant”,  meaning someone dependent on both the labor of the family and attached to the land, she noted.  The Group will focus on the systemic and intersecting forms of discrimination affecting peasants that are unaddressed in other international rights instruments, she said, spotlighting that peasant women are disproportionately affected by poverty and food insecurity as well as difficulty accessing land, water and seeds, despite producing up to 80 per cent of crops in some countries.  A “crucial first step” for the Group is the dissemination of the Declaration, she added, calling on States to share their efforts in that task.

Treaty body Chairs also briefed delegates on their work against the backdrop of the UN liquidity crisis.

“I must recall that the treaty bodies are a professional platform dedicated to protecting and promoting human rights — whose relevance has never been more significant,” said Tania María Abdo Rocholl, Chair of the Human Rights Committee.  “We continue to make progress in the treaty bodies strengthening process despite the difficult situation of the UN,” she added, pointing to the lack of available cash to implement mandates.  During the working period, her Committee held dialogues with 27 States and adopted six lists of issues, she continued, noting that 19 countries submitted reports.  The Committee continues to receive an increased number of cases, however, with 1,267 of them pending for 2023 alone.  In that vein, the implementation of the Pact for the Future — adopted by the General Assembly in September 2024 — is essential to ensure that the treaty body system can continue to function, she stated.

Echoing such concerns over the impact of the ongoing liquidity crisis on the treaty body system, Laura Craciunean-Tatu, Chair of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, emphasized the importance of those rights in addressing global challenges. Overviewing her Committee’s work, she highlighted a general situation of late and non-reporting — with some reports 10 years overdue.  Assistance in their preparation is available, she noted, calling on those States to fulfill their obligations under the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.  The treaty body continues to receive a high number of individual communications, she added, noting a backlog of 188 pending cases.  Calling for the necessary resources to process them, she highlighted the important role of national stakeholders who engage with her Committee — “this is not always easy or without risk,” she said.