Sep. 8 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International (AI) have asked Volker Turk, a candidate nominated by the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, to occupy the post of High Commissioner for Human Rights to be prepared to maintain a critical position in the face of deteriorating rights around the world.
Human Rights Watch said in a statement that the Austrian Turk “must be ready and willing to confront even the most powerful governments in a public way”, while not expecting “behind the scenes dialogue to bring about change”.
In this way, HRW has expressed that it hopes that the candidate, who is currently Assistant Secretary General for Policies at the United Nations, will be a “frank and principled defender” of “all victims of abuse around the world.”
“The new High Commissioner will have a lot of work to do to combat a difficult human rights environment around the world,” explained the executive director of HRW, Tirana Hassan, adding that he is facing crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, in Ukraine and in Ethiopia. or racism in America.
For its part, AI has requested that the candidate, appointed at “a time of considerable threats to human rights around the world”, respond to numerous challenges: the war in Ukraine, the persecution of the Uyghur minority in China, as well as forgotten crises such as those in Yemen, Burma or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“His voice in defense of the victims of human rights violations around the world must be loud and clear. They count on him to confront the violators, even when it comes to powerful states,” the AI secretary general also agreed. , Agnes Callamard.
Likewise, he has indicated that they hope to work with Turk “to respond to the many existential threats and human rights violations that the world faces.” “We also hope that you will respect and support the role of civil society in informing and shaping human rights positions and responses,” she added.
Turk’s nomination as the new High Commissioner for Human Rights to replace Michelle Bachelet, who left office last August, has been confirmed by a spokesperson for the High Commissioner for Human Rights in statements to Europa Press.
The future substitute for Bachelet, who was also ‘number 2’ in the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) between 2015 and 2019, will have to be approved by the United Nations General Assembly and will hold the position for four years with the possibility of renewing their mandate for a fixed term of another four.
Bachelet announced in June that she would not aspire to a second term, for which she left the position she had held for four years on August 31, after publishing a controversial report on the Human Rights of the Uyghur minority in the Chinese region of Xinjiang by the one who received pressure, according to what he denounced.
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