“There is no time to spare,” said Tor Wennesland, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

“We must take action, not only to ensure Palestinian well-being and governance, but as an integral part of ending the occupation and restoring a political horizon toward a viable two-State solution, based on UN resolutions, international law and previous agreements,” he said, briefing the Council on recent grim and dangerous security and humanitarian concerns.

While a ceasefire that ended five days of fighting between Israel and Gaza is holding, conflict mitigation efforts must also be met with steps by both sides – supported by the international community – to reset a trajectory out of the cycle of violence, he said.

In this vein, he called on all parties to stop unilateral and inflammatory actions that undermine prospects for peace, and to address the acute financial and institutional challenges facing the Palestinian Authority.

Looming food crisis

The Special Coordinator also warned of a looming food crisis.

“I am particularly alarmed by the funding crisis facing UN agencies supporting basic services and social support, including emergency food assistance, to Palestinians,” he said, encouraging Member States to immediately seek ways to increase their support.

Unless new support arrives, the World Food Programme (WFP) will suspend cash assistance to some 200,000 Palestinians next week, and the UN relief agency, UNRWA, will not have the resources to deliver core services in September.

Without new funding, he said “we will face serious humanitarian and, potentially, security challenges”.

Diplomacy saves lives

In recent weeks, the UN, together with regional and international partners, mobilized once again to end hostilities between armed factions in Gaza and Israeli forces, he said, calling such efforts “crucial to saving Palestinian and Israeli lives”.

“Nevertheless, we must also keep issues fundamental to creating the conditions for a lasting peace at the forefront,” he said. “The immediate priority is to support steps to bolster the Palestinian Authority and preserve the provision of critical services to the Palestinian people.”

These steps should be implemented in a way that encourages the parties to engage with each other and require actions by Israeli and Palestinian leaders, alongside increased support and attention from the international community, he said.

Civilians ‘bear the brunt’

Meanwhile, he said a landscape of violence and tensions saw Israel and Palestinian armed factions once again resort to rocket fire into and out of the Gaza Strip enclave.

Following the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) leader Khader Adnan’s death in an Israeli jail following an 86-day hunger strike, armed factions in Gaza fired over 100 rockets towards Israel, causing damage but no injuries. The Israeli Air Force responded with airstrikes against what it said were Hamas and PIJ targets in the Strip, killing one Palestinian and causing damage, he said.

Even though the hostilities ended on 3 May, Israel had conducted 323 airstrikes against what it said were PIJ military targets in Gaza, while Palestinian militants, mainly PIJ’s al-Quds Brigades, launched over 1,200 rockets and more than 250 mortars towards Israel, he added.

The number of deaths mounted on both sides, he said, regretting to note that civilians continued to “bear the brunt of such hostilities”.

West Bank violence

Levels of violence remained high in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, he said.

Seventeen Palestinians, including two children, were killed and 138 Palestinians, including two women and 23 children, were injured by Israeli security forces during demonstrations, clashes, search-and-arrest operations, attacks, and alleged attacks against Israelis, he said.

During the reporting period, Israeli forces imposed significant movement restrictions around Jericho, Nablus, and Hebron following either Palestinian attacks or stone throwing – affecting tens of thousands of Palestinians and local economic conditions.

Racist slogans

Thousands of right-wing Israeli activists, including senior Government ministers, participated in the highly provocative annual “flag day” march through Jerusalem’s Old City, marking Jerusalem Day, he said, adding that “many chanted racist slogans, including ‘death to Arabs’, with scuffles breaking out between Israeli participants and Palestinians”.

“Such provocations and incitement, which continued in the days after the march, are unacceptable and must be condemned by all,” he said.

Palestinian houses and Israeli settlements in H2 area in Hebron, West Bank.

Expanding illegal settlements

More illegal settlement plans are moving forward, with tenders published for some 310 housing units in Area C and demolitions continuing, he said.

During the reporting period, Israeli authorities demolished, seized, or forced owners to demolish 33 Palestinian-owned structures in Area C and 17 in East Jerusalem, including a donor-funded school east of Bethlehem, displacing 89 Palestinians, including 45 children, he said, calling on Israeli authorities to end the displacement and eviction of Palestinians.

“They are a substantial obstacle to peace and must stop,” he said of the settlements, noting that all such expansion into occupied territory is illegal under international law.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk appealed to the leaders of the Sudanese Armed Forces and of the Rapid Support Forces, locked in conflict since 15 April, to “issue clear instructions” to those under their command that sexual violence will not be tolerated, and to ensure that all perpetrators are held accountable.

Mr. Türk called reports of sexual violence in Khartoum and Darfur “very troubling” and said that while his Office was aware of at least 25 cases, he feared the real number to be much higher.

“General al-Burhan, General Dagalo… you must stop this senseless violence now,” he insisted, stressing that efforts to bring the conflict to an end “must have human rights” at their core.

Crackdowns on women’s rights

At a press conference in Geneva, in a wide-ranging overview of human rights hotspots and “dangerous” anti-rights tendencies on the rise, Mr. Türk called misogyny a “disease” and slammed the crackdown on women’s rights in Afghanistan.

“I will never understand how anyone can trample so cruelly upon the spirit of girls and women, chipping away at their potential and driving one’s country deeper and deeper into abject poverty and despair,” he said.

He also commented on “intensified” harassment of women in Iran, calling on the country’s authorities to repeal regulations that criminalize non-compliance with mandatory dress codes, and condemning the continued use of the death penalty “in significant numbers”.

Disinformation stoking rights crackdown

The UN rights chief warned that “peddlers of lies and disinformation” were fuelling anti-rights movements, notably against LGBTQI+ people. He sounded the alarm against the “vilification of segments of society”, saying that driving people against one another was invariably detrimental to society as a whole.

Mr. Türk deplored in particular the worsening of laws criminalizing LGBTQI+ people, such as recent legislation in Uganda, which he had previously called “devastating”.

The High Commissioner also called out hate speech against migrants and refugees, as well as anti-migrant laws and policies, citing recent developments in the United Kingdom, the United States, Italy, Greece and Lebanon. He highlighted the need for solidarity and respect for the rights of all people in situations of vulnerability.

‘Systemic racism’

Recalling that Thursday will mark three years to the day since the murder of George Floyd by a policeman in the United States, Mr. Türk said that he was deeply concerned about regular reports of death and injuries of people of African descent “during or after interactions with law enforcement in a number of countries”, and that this targeted police brutality pointed to “systemic racism”.

Racist taunts at Real Madrid

Highlighting the recent case of Brazilian footballer Vinícius Júnior as a “stark reminder” of the prevalence of racism in sport, the UN rights chief called on sports organizers to redouble efforts to eradicate racial discrimination and highlighted the need to listen to and involve people of African descent in the search for solutions.

Vinícius Júnior, a Real Madrid player, was the victim of racist abuse by football fans last week. Spanish police arrested several suspects on Tuesday over their involvement in alleged hate crime incidents targeting the footballer.

A stronger rights system

With human rights in dire straits in so many places around the world, Mr. Türk said that he saw an urgent need to strengthen the UN rights office (OHCHR) through additional funding.

United Nations High Commissioner Volker Türk ends his visit to Colombia with a press conference in Bogota.

He said that his ambition was to double the budget to $800 million, which could allow for the strengthening of OHCHR’s field presence. He recalled that while human rights was one of the three pillars of the UN, it only mobilized a very small portion of the Organization’s regular budget.

Stating his belief in the Office’s presence on the ground, the High Commissioner said that he saw “great value” in an OHCHR acting as “the bridge between civil society, human rights defenders, victims, and the institutions of the state”.

‘Back to basics’

Emphasizing the universality of human rights, Mr. Türk called it “a matter for everyone, everywhere”.

“All States can and should do better on human rights,” he insisted.

Mr. Türk also expressed his “fervent” hope that the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, marked this year, will “provide the space and inspiration for all of us to go back to the basics – to find the roots of human rights values in each of our cultures, histories, and faiths, uniting us in pushing back against the instrumentalization and politicization of human rights within and between countries”.