The UN celebrates 75 years of the declaration of human rights in the shadow of Gaza

GENEVA:

The UN human rights chief urged countries on Monday to work together to defeat threats such as war and pollution at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that risks being overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas conflict .

Ministers, diplomats and activists attended the Geneva event where Volker Turk invoked the spirit in which the fledgling United Nations adopted the declaration in December 1948, in response to what the document called “barbaric acts that outrage the conscience of humanity”.

“I see today’s event as a call for hope and a call to action,” said Turk, an Austrian, who said the statement had inspired successes such as the end of racial segregation in the United States and apartheid in South Africa.

“In an age of so little solidarity and such divisive and short-sighted vision, I see this as a call to overcome polarization.”

But he lamented setbacks in the struggle, such as war, referring to “millions of people who are suffering unbearably in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, especially in Gaza and Israel,” as well as famine, discrimination, repression and pollution.

Reading UN chief says he won’t give up calls for Gaza ceasefire

Never before in the post-World War II period has the world seen so many conflicts, with 55 now active, including a war between rival military factions in Sudan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations said.

In announcements about the two-day event, Turk’s office has avoided the word “celebrate” in reference to the anniversary, preferring instead the term “mark”.

Other UN officials were more disappointed than the Turk.

Lynn Hastings, the UN humanitarian coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said human rights were under attack more than two months after Hamas’ deadly cross-border attacks on Israel on October 7, which followed a retaliatory Israeli bombing campaign.

“In 2023, I shouldn’t be making a statement like that,” he said. “It’s like we haven’t learned anything in the last 75 years.”