Addressing the opening of the Council’s 54th session, Mr. Türk strongly condemned the “old, blunt, brutal politics of repression” as exemplified by a rise in military coups and the crushing of dissent – “in short, the fist”. 

Following military takeovers in Niger and Gabon, he insisted that the “unconstitutional changes in government” such as the ones seen recently in the Sahel are “not the solution”. 

“We need instead an urgent reversal to civilian governance, and open spaces where people can participate, influence, accompany and criticise government actions – or lack of action,” he said. 

Interlinked rights and development challenges

Mr. Türk said that the challenges faced by countries in the Sahel, which leave their populations “struggling for daily survival”, are interlinked.

The devastating impacts of climate change, lack of investment in essential services and weak governance “are the sources that violent extremism draws from”, he warned. 

He also sounded the alarm over mass-produced “lies and disinformation” aided by new technologies and emphasized that “people everywhere want – and have the right to… objective information, not propaganda.”

‘Leave no one behind’

The UN rights chief underscored that over his years of service with the UN it had become clear to him that development issues “underlie almost every challenge we face”. 

“Leaving no-one behind is not an empty slogan. It is a human rights action plan that reaches across the whole spectrum of human rights”, he said.

He deplored the fact that the world was “betraying [its] promise” to end hunger and poverty by 2030. 

‘Collective human rights failure’

Some 600 million people are projected to be chronically undernourished at the end of the decade according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) despite the massive financial and technological resources at our disposal, Mr. Türk said. 

He also stressed that 1.2 billion people, nearly half of them children, now live in “acute multidimensional poverty” and risk being joined by millions more as a result of climate change,  as projected by the World Bank. 

“This is a terrible collective human rights failure,” he stated. 

Fight against inequalities

The High Commissioner detailed steps to address the “abyss between rich and poor” and the inequalities preventing humanity from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

He spoke about the need for a reform of the international financial architecture offering “fairer deals on debt relief”, urgent funding for developing countries in the form of an SDG Stimulus, a push towards international tax cooperation and a reinvigorated global fight against corruption and illicit financial flows.

Environmental accountability

Mr. Türk also called for “effectively financed human rights-based climate action” to help developing countries adapt to the effects of climate change, to which they contributed so little, and offset the damage done.  

He stressed the need for a “rapid, equitable phase-out of fossil fuels” and welcomed the consideration of measures to ensure “accountability for environmental damage”, such as the proposed inclusion of the international crime of “ecocide” in the Rome Statute of the UN-backed International Criminal Court.

‘Politics of indifference’

In his address the UN rights chief highlighted a wide range of human rights crises around the world. He said that he was shocked by the “nonchalance” and the “politics of indifference” in the face of more than 2,300 people reported dead or missing in the Mediterranean this year, “including the loss of more than 600 lives in a single shipwreck off Greece in June”. 

He strongly condemned the fact that many more migrants and refugees were dying “unnoticed” in Europe, in the Bay of Bengal, on the border between the United States and Mexico and beyond. 

Russia’s warfare in Ukraine ‘horrific’

Mr. Türk also spoke about Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the “horrific warfare” which has ravaged the country. 

“The Russian Federation’s withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain Initiative in July, and attacks on grain facilities in Odesa and elsewhere, have again forced prices sky-high in many developing countries – taking the right to food far out of reach for many people,” he said.

He reiterated his “deep concerns” regarding restrictions on fundamental rights in Russia and “particularly severe oppression” of the anti-war movement and human rights activists, as exemplified by the harsh prison sentences handed down to opponents Alexei Navalny and Vladimir Kara-Murza.

Palestine and Iran

The High Commissioner expressed his “profound shock” at the escalating violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as well as concern over the “continuing civic space restrictions” by the Palestinian Authorities and de facto authorities in Gaza. 

He also deplored the “inadequate” accountability for the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran one year on and reiterated his concerns over restriction on the rights of women and girls, as well as the renewed deployment of the morality police, a force “almost exclusively aimed” at controlling them.

‘Repugnant’ Quran burnings

The “fabrication of artificial disputes over gender” was part of what Mr. Türk called “the politics of division and distraction”. In this context he brought up the “repugnant” series of some 30 recent incidents of burning the Quran to “create divisions, both within societies, and between countries”.

He announced that he would discuss this topic in detail on 6 October, as mandated by a resolution adopted during an urgent debate at the Council’s previous session.

Minute of silence

Monday’s meeting opened with a minute of silence honouring the victims of the devastating earthquake in Morocco on 8 September, which has so far claimed at least 2,100 lives. 

The Vice-President of the Council, Permanent Representative of the Gambia to the UN in Geneva Muhammadou M.O. Kah, urged solidarity with the victims, stressing to delegations present that they were “not just representatives of nations or organisations” but “part of a global community, humanity”. Morocco’s ambassador Omar Zniber thanked delegates for the gesture and the Geneva-based organisations for their support.

Marathon session

The Human Rights Council’s 54^th session will run until 13 October at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. During the marathon five-week session, the Council will focus on the human rights situations in Afghanistan, Belarus, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Ukraine among others. 

UN Secretary-General António Guterres was delivering his message marking the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief and began by reiterating that freedom of belief is “an inalienable human right”.

“Yet, around the world, people and communities, particularly minorities, face intolerance, discrimination and threats – to their places of worship, their livelihoods and even their lives”, he said.

“Hatred stirred on and offline is often the cause.” 

The official UN Day provides an opportunity to remember all who have suffered based primarily on their faith, and an opportunity to “renew our resolve to stamp out the hate speech that fuels these terrible acts of intolerance.”

Initiatives offer solutions

Mr. Guterres cited initiatives such as his Call to Action for Human Rights and the UN Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech, which provide a blueprint to do so. 

“I urge all governments to prevent and address acts of violence based on religion and belief”, he continued. 

“I call on everyone, particularly political, community and religious leaders, to speak out against hate and incitement to violence.”

He called on senior politicians, technology companies and other stakeholders to support the UN’s development of a voluntary Code of Conduct for Information Integrity on Digital Platforms, ahead of next year’s Summit of the Future, specifically to tackle hate speech online.

More inclusion, respect

“Together, let’s honour the victims of violence by striving to build a more inclusive, respectful, and peaceful world – one where diversity is celebrated.” 

The Day was designated by the UN General Assembly in 2019, spurred by widespread violations suffered by vulnerable groups such as migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and persons belonging to minorities – who are targeted on the basis of religion or belief.

A large group of independent UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts pointed out in a statement that it took some two decades before the UN Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief had been agreed, acknowledging the “great suffering brought about by the disregard and infringement of human rights including of freedom of religion or belief.”

‘Far greater determination’ needed

As the world marks the 75th anniversary this year of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), there is special resonance with the emphasis in that declaration, that the use of religion or belief for ends inconsistent with the UN Charter or other instruments, “is inadmissible and condemnable”, they said. 

They noted that 42 years on from the 1981 Declaration, this year’s International Day “offers the opportunity to make visible the multiple, daily and egregious violence that takes place based on religion or belief, and to seek to respond to its root causes, urgently and with far greater determination.”

GN Saibaba, a former English professor at Delhi University, was arrested in 2014 and accused of links to banned Maoist groups, according to media reports.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment three years later for multiple offences under the country’s Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

‘Shameful’ detention

“GN Saibaba is a long-standing defender of the rights of minorities in India, including the Dalit and Adivasi people,” said Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.

“His continued detention is shameful. It bears all the hallmarks of a State seeking to silence a critical voice,” she added.

UN human rights experts have repeatedly raised grave concerns about the prosecution of Mr. Saibaba, who has suffered from a spinal disorder and polio since childhood and uses a wheelchair. 

His detention was declared arbitrary by the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in an opinion issued in 2021.

Detention and health concerns 

Ms. Lawlor noted that apart from two short periods of being granted bail, he has been held in Nagpur Central Jail since his initial arrest and detention. She said his condition in prison is a matter of serious concern.

“Mr. Saibaba has been detained in a high security ‘anda barracks’ in conditions incompatible with his status as a wheelchair user,” she said. “His 8×10 feet cell has no window and one wall made of iron bars, exposing him to extreme weather, especially in the scorching summer heat.”

The rights expert also expressed concern for his health, which has severely deteriorated in detention, and advocated for his release.

“States have an obligation to uphold the right to health of prisoners and detainees and ensure their dignity as human beings. Prison authorities must ensure that prisoners with disabilities are not discriminated against, including by ensuring accessibility and providing reasonable accommodation,” said Ms. Lawlor.

About UN Rapporteurs

Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council to monitor and report on specific country situations or thematic issues.

They serve in their individual capacity and are independent of any Government or organization. 

These experts are not UN staff and they are not paid for their work. 

A new publication from the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) presents “credible” reports that between 15 August 2021 and 30 June 2023, the country’s de facto authorities were responsible for 218 extrajudicial killings, 14 enforced disappearances, over 144 instances of torture and ill treatment, and 424 arbitrary arrests and detentions. 

‘Betrayal of trust’

UN human rights chief Volker Türk said that the targeting of former officials despite the announcement by the Taliban when it returned to power of a “general amnesty” for former government officials and members of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces, is a “betrayal of the people’s trust”. 

He urged the de facto authorities to prevent further abuses and hold perpetrators to account. 

The report points out that officials from the previous democratically elected administration are entitled to the same human rights protections as all Afghans and that Afghanistan remains a party to international human rights treaties banning the violations described.

First-hand accounts of torture

In interviews, individuals recounted beatings with pipes, cables, verbal threats and abuse at the hands of de facto security force members. 

UNAMA also heard from family members whose relatives had been arrested or gone missing, their bodies found days or even months later.  

‘Whereabouts unknown’

In some instances, missing individuals have never been found. This was the case of the former Head of the Herat Women’s Prison, Alia Azizi, who never returned home from work on 2 October 2021. 

As of 22 August 2023, her whereabouts remain unknown, UNAMA said, even though Taliban authorities reportedly “initiated an investigation” into her disappearance. 

Impunity prevails

According to UNAMA, efforts by the de facto authorities to investigate and hold perpetrators accountable for the incidents described in the report have been “extremely limited”. 

Investigations were announced in a handful of cases, but even then, UNAMA says, “progress lacks transparency and accountability; impunity prevails”.

No guidance on amnesty

The report calls on the Taliban to clarify the terms of the general amnesty and ensure that it is upheld.

UNAMA noted that to date, the de facto authorities have not publicly released any written text or guidance setting out the scope of the amnesty, which was only announced in public comments made by their leadership.

UNAMA Head Roza Otunbayeva said that the de facto authorities must demonstrate a “genuine commitment” to the general amnesty, which is a crucial step in ensuring “real prospects” for justice, reconciliation and peace in the country.