Urgent Call to End War in Gaza and Address Systemic Violations of International Law – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Mr. President,

Excellencies,

Distinguished delegates,

Next month will mark two years since I took up my position as High Commissioner.

For this Global Update, I would therefore like to depart from the usual listing of various country situations and offer some broader reflections about the state of human rights today, at the mid-way point of my mandate.

It seems to me we are at a fork in the road. We can either continue on our current path — a treacherous ‘new normal’ — and sleepwalk into a dystopian future. Or we can wake up and turn things around for the better, for humanity and the planet.

The ‘new normal’ cannot be endless, vicious military escalation and increasingly horrifying, technologically “advanced” methods of warfare, control, and repression.

The ‘new normal’ cannot be continued indifference to deepening inequalities within and between States.

It cannot be the free-for-all spread of disinformation, smothering facts and the ability to make free and informed choices. Heated rhetoric and simplistic fixes, erasing context, nuance, and empathy. Paving the way for hate speech and the dire consequences that inevitably follow.

The ‘new normal’ cannot mean accepting the injustice, driven by greed, that the triple planetary crisis affects those who are the least responsible the most. Or that sustainable development remains elusive for so many.

The ‘new normal’ cannot be that national sovereignty is twisted to shroud – or excuse – horrific violations.

Or the discrediting of multilateral institutions or attempts to rewrite the international rules, chipping away at universally agreed norms.

This cannot be the world we want – as individuals, for our families and loved ones, for our societies, and for our global community and future generations.

We can and must make a different choice.

Reconnect with our common humanity, nature, and our planet.

In other words, we could choose to be guided by human rights and the universal values that we all share.

/…

Sadly, the war in Gaza is the quintessential example.

Since the horrific 7 October attacks claimed the lives of over 1,200 victims in Israel and injured many others, over 40,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, several thousand injured, and thousands remain under the rubble in Gaza. Each day, Palestinians struggle to survive. Nearly 1.9 million people have been forcibly displaced across the strip, many multiple times. Eleven months on, 101 Israeli hostages are still held to be in Gaza. While the actual number is likely higher, almost 10,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli prisons or ad hoc military facilities, many arbitrarily, with over 50 people having died due to inhumane conditions and ill-treatment. In the West Bank, deadly and destructive operations, some at a scale not witnessed in the last two decades, are worsening a calamitous situation there, already aggravated by serious settler violence.

Ending that war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority. Equally, the wider situation of illegality across the occupied Palestinian territory deriving from Israel’s policies and practices, as so clearly spelled out by the International Court of Justice in its Advisory Opinion in July, must be comprehensively addressed.

States must not – cannot – accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the Security Council and orders of the International Court of Justice, neither in this nor any other situation.

/…

Mr. President,

Going forward, I like to be transparent about my approach to my mandate, about the challenges, and the opportunities.

I believe in engagement, frank exchanges and keeping dialogue open, even more so in the face of fierce disagreement.

We need to overcome absolutist approaches, the ‘us versus them’ mentality and the lack of nuance. The world is far too complex.

It is my duty to speak out publicly, whenever necessary, to achieve the greatest positive impact.

Human rights are meant to challenge our own assumptions and identify the blind spots. They are meant to encourage self-critical reflection because no one is perfect.

Selectivity and inconsistent standards serve no one – and certainly not victims of human rights violations.

The argument that we should only focus on the biggest crises of the day doesn’t hold for the human rights cause.

Because human rights ‘begin in small places, close to home’ [Eleanor Roosevelt].

And human rights are universal, indivisible, and interdependent.

It is important for me to understand when – and why – some States resist engaging meaningfully with my Office. And some only come to us when they have a problem elsewhere. So, it will remain my priority to assure all States of the value of engaging with my Office and the human rights system as a whole, not for engagement’s sake, but to achieve tangible progress.

Internally, we have devoted considerable time to designing an organizational plan to make UN Human Rights Office more effective and responsive, fit for purpose to deliver on the many expectations you have of us and the requests for assistance, support and advice that we receive. We need your active funding, and strategic and political support to help us implement it.

Governments and other actors will not always like what we have to say. That is inherent to the very nature of human rights. But I urge you not to kill the messenger, and instead to focus on furthering our fundamental common objective: the promotion and protection of human rights for everyone, everywhere.

My Office will continue to work tirelessly in support of victims everywhere. I urge you all to make use of this institution to the fullest, because a strong UN Human Rights Office and a healthy, well-resourced human rights ecosystem, are of global interest and benefit. And represent an extraordinary return on investment at a tiny fraction of the resources so readily devoted elsewhere.

Collectively, we should make the choice of rejecting the ‘new normal’ and the dystopian future it would present. Let us embrace and trust the full power of human rights as the path to the world we want — more peaceful, just, fair, and sustainable