Climate change and its devastating effects are very real, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights vigorously argued on Monday, calling for a fight against the impunity of “those who plunder” the planet.
Speaking at the opening of the 54e session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which is due to last five weeks, High Commissioner Volker Türk above all wanted to warn of the “environmental horror”. “The dystopian future is already here. We need urgent action now. And we know what to do. The real question is: what’s stopping us? », he said after the failure of a joint appeal on the issue at the G20 this weekend.
Volker Türk, for his part, pleaded for a “rapid” exit from fossil fuels and welcomed efforts across the globe aimed at integrating “ecocide” into the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
While climate change is increasing population movements, he denounced “indifference” in the face of tragedies on migratory routes. “I am shocked by the nonchalance shown in the face of the more than 2,300 people who have been declared dead or missing in the Mediterranean this year,” he said, assuring that a much larger number of migrants and refugees are perishing. elsewhere in the world.
He pointed to the situations along the border between the United States and Mexico, as well as on the border with Saudi Arabia, where his services “request urgent clarification on the allegations of assassinations and bad treatments “.
The High Commissioner also denounced “the lies and disinformation” which, thanks to new technologies, “are produced en masse to sow chaos and confusion, deny reality and guarantee that no measure — which could endanger the interests of the elites — is not taken”.
In this regard, “the most obvious case is climate change,” he said.
A long list of violations
High Commissioner Türk also listed a long list of human rights violations across the world, targeting many countries, including China and Iran, while deploring the proliferation of policies aimed at dividing the world through “the creation of artificial conflicts over gender, migration or a clash of civilizations”.
Regarding China, he said that the country’s “recent economic challenges highlight the need for a more participatory approach that respects all human rights — including the rights of members of ethnic minorities, residents of rural communities, internal migrant workers, elderly people and people with disabilities.
While he was recently criticized by NGOs over the follow-up to the UN report published a year ago on serious human rights violations in the Chinese province of Xinjiang, Mr. Türk insisted on the need for a “strong restorative action”. He also said he was in favor of an international investigation into the explosion three years ago in the port of Beirut, deploring that “no responsibility has been established” in this affair, and said “ deeply shocked by the escalation of violence” in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The official also criticized Iran’s proposed veil law and expressed concern, in this context, about the “redeployment of the moral police, a force almost exclusively intended to control women and girls.”
The High Commissioner very little discussed the war in Ukraine, but he will have the opportunity to return to it when the international commission of inquiry into this matter addresses the UN Human Rights Council on 25 september. The human rights situation in Russia will also be discussed during the presentation of the special rapporteur’s first report on September 21.
Other situations that must be addressed at the council include Syria, Myanmar, Afghanistan, Haiti, Nicaragua and Sudan, into which some countries could propose an international investigation.