GENEVA: United Nations Human Rights chief Volker Turk, an \u200boutspoken critic of Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza, faces opposition from both countries to a second four-year term ahead of a vote on Friday, diplomats told Reuters. Turk, a lawyer who has worked for the United Nations for decades in major offices such as Geneva and field locations including Kosovo, finishes his first four-year term in October.<\/p>\n
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has worked closely with Turk in the past and steps down in December, has proposed another full term for the Austrian.<\/p>\n
However, Russia has submitted a counter-proposal to extend his term by just over two months to the end of 2026, according to a copy seen by Reuters. Three diplomats said Israel also opposed a four-year extension and that Washington had raised doubts, \u200cturning what had \u200cbeen expected to be a consensus reappointment into a contentious vote.<\/p>\n
Others have also privately \u200bsaid \u200cGuterres\u2019 \u2060successor should have \u200ba \u2060say.<\/p>\n
UN HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF IS DEFENDER OF FREEDOMS<\/p>\n
Asked to comment, Russia\u2019s UN mission in New York agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr Turk\u2019s reappointment for four years deprives the new secretary-general of the opportunity to make his\/her own choice for such an important post for a long period,\u201d it said. \u201cIt is an arbitrary idea given the sensitivity of the human rights architecture and its role in the United Nations in general.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mission said the view was shared by \u201cmany\u201d UN states and added: \u201cWe\u2019ll see tomorrow how many of them will be ready to openly state their position without fear of reprisals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since the vote is in the UN General Assembly, the veto powers held by Russia \u2060and the other four permanent members of the UN Security Council \u2014 China, the United States, \u200cBritain and France \u2014 do not apply. No previous human rights chief has served two \u200cfull four-year terms. Jordan\u2019s Zeid Ra\u2019ad Al-Hussein, in post from 2014-18, said that remaining \u200blonger risked muting his advocacy and compromising his independence. Israel\u2019s Foreign \u200cMinistry called Guterres\u2019 re-proposal of Turk a \u201cmoral failure\u201d on X and said the choice should be left to \u200chis successor. The US State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Asked about Turk\u2019s reappointment this week, a spokesperson for his office said: \u201cI believe the High Commissioner is ready to serve.\u201d<\/p>\n
The post, created in 1993, plays a critical role in speaking out against erosion of freedoms at a time when autocracies are gaining influence at the expense of democracy.<\/p>\n
AFRICAN BACKING FOR TURK<\/p>\n
Some early critics of Turk\u2019s appointment had assumed \u200che would adopt a quieter approach. Instead, he has repeatedly criticized governments ranging from Russia and Israel to the United States. He has accused Russia of severe violations of human rights \u2060and international humanitarian law since its \u20602022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, allegations Moscow denies. He has called for investigations into deaths in US immigration custody and denounced hostilities between the United States and Iran. Washington has defended its standard of care in custody. Turk has also condemned Israel\u2019s \u201cmass killing\u201d in Gaza, although some including his own staff regret that he did not call the killings a genocide \u2014 an allegation Israel categorically denies.<\/p>\n
The Russian mission rejected suggestions that Moscow was opposing a four-year extension because of Turk\u2019s criticism of Russia\u2019s actions in Ukraine. It said its considerations included the wish to preserve the UN\u2019s institutional integrity and respect procedures.<\/p>\n
Diplomats said Guterres has been consulting governments for months about the proposal \u2014 a process meant to garner consensus and ward off last-minute surprises such as Russia\u2019s motion.<\/p>\n
Turk enjoys strong backing from European states and many Latin American ones, they said. A diplomatic memo from the African Union seen by Reuters showed \u201cno objection\u201d to the proposed four-year reappointment.<\/p>\n
No other known candidates are known to be under consideration for the position.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Secretary-General is following \u200bthe resolution and following the rules,\u201d UN spokesperson Stephane \u200bDujarric said in New York on Thursday.<\/p>\n
.\u201d.. the Secretary-General has very much appreciated the work that Volker Turk has done in his term as High Commissioner for Human Rights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GENEVA: United Nations Human Rights chief Volker Turk, an \u200boutspoken critic of Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine and Israel\u2019s conduct in Gaza, faces opposition from both countries to a second four-year term ahead of a vote on Friday, diplomats told Reuters. Turk, a lawyer who has worked for the United Nations for decades in major offices …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":100728,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100711"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100711\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100730,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100711\/revisions\/100730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}