By Blessing Chinagorom
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk has hinted that globally 55 conflicts are flaring up, battering people’s lives, destroying economies, profoundly damaging human rights, dividing the world, and upending hopes for multilateral solutions.
Turk who made the revelation at the 55th session of the Human Rights Council on Monday added that conflict have spread violations of international humanitarian and human rights law are generating devastating impact on civilians while displacement and humanitarian crises have already reached an unprecedented scale.
He pointed out that overlapping emergencies make the spectre of spillover conflict very real and the war in Gaza has explosive impact across the Middle East, adding that conflicts in other regions, including the Horn of Africa, Sudan and the Sahel, could also escalate sharply.
Turk said, “Increasing militarisation on the Korean Peninsula raises threat levels. The deteriorating security crisis in eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which the Council will address on 3 April, is alarming. In the Red Sea, as well as Black Sea, attacks are creating shock-waves for the global transport of goods, adding to the economic pain inflicted on less developed countries”, he said.
The Human Rights Boss noted that the right to peace is the mother of human rights, saying without peace, all other rights are quashed. “It is urgent that we devise ways to counter warmongering, fear and the illogic of escalating hatred and hostility which bring short-term profit to a few while ruining the lives and rights of millions.
“We need to regain a mindset of peace. This means the art of de-escalation; keeping communication channels open; rebuilding trust; and the long-term work of healing and reconciliation – re-establishing a sense of the interconnectedness and shared destiny of all humanity”.
Speaking on elections in over 60 countries where nearly half of the world’s people live, he noted that 2024 could be landmark for democratic principles. “Demos, people; kratos, rule: a meaningful, safe and fully participatory electoral process is key to ensuring that governance serves the people’s human rights.
“But democracy is also broader than the singular electoral moment every three, four or five years. It lives or dies with the people’s right to participate in the conduct of public affairs, constantly.
“This empowerment of people from all walks of life is the ‘superpower’ of genuinely participatory societies, because it ensures trust in the institutions of governance, with decision-making that is more relevant and more effective, because it is better informed and balances the needs of different groups.
“Three-quarters of the world’s members of Parliament are men. Globally, women – that is to say, half the adult population continue to be blocked from equal political participation and representation – and at the current rate of progress, gender parit y in national parliaments will not be achieved before 2063”.
Turk urged all States to do more to combat gender discrimination and violence against women, and to dismantle the webs of laws and practices that keep women out of power, adding that the good governance requires constant oversight and accountability, via independent checks.
“And balances to the exercise of power, meaning that it is strongly underpinned by the rule of law, including independent justice systems. Fundamental freedoms – the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, peaceful assembly and association – are also essential.
“Corruption is also a major challenge to democracy and rights. Its primary impact is to divert decision-making, public resources from the common good to private benefit – generating social and economic inequalities that may be so extensive that they empty the institutions of the State of any meaning, and deprive people who are poor, dispossessed of their rights to determine their future.
In many parts of the world, many politicians are deliberately enflaming antagonism and xenophobia to garner support, particularly in electoral periods. In this headlong rush to abandon the common good for short-term personal benefit, they are tearing up the fundamental human rights principles that can unite us all.
The UN Human Rights Boss who is profoundly concerned by the prospect of intense disinformation campaigns in the context of elections, fuelled by generative artificial intelligence said there is an acute need for robust regulatory frameworks to ensure responsible use of generative AI.
He concluded that Peace, like development, is built and nourished through rights. “It is by upholding and advancing full spectrum of human rights, including right to development and the right to a clean, healthy, sustainable environment, that States can craft solutions that are durable – because they respond to the universal truth of our equality and the inextinguishable desire for freedom and justice.
History is a record of humanity’s capacity to surmount the worst challenges. Among the greatest achievements of humanity over the past 75 years has been the recognition that addressing human rights in every country– all human rights; it is not an à la carte menu – is a matter of international concern.