AFP – The two-state solution in Palestine and Israel was being “stripped away in broad daylight,” UN chief Antonio Guterres warned on Monday.
There were “blatant violations of human rights, human dignity and international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” he said, and the trajectory under Israeli occupation was “stark, clear and purposeful. The international community cannot allow it to happen.”
Human rights were under “full-scale attack around the world,” Guterres said, with the most powerful often leading the charge. “The rule of law is being outmuscled by the rule of force,” he told the opening of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“This assault is not coming from the shadows, or by surprise. It is happening in plain sight — and often led by those who hold the greatest power.”
Guterres said the worst conflict-hit areas were not the only places where rights were eroding.
“Around the world, human rights are being pushed back deliberately, strategically and sometimes proudly,” he said. “We are living in a world where mass suffering is excused away, where humans are used as bargaining chips, where international law is treated as a mere inconvenience. And when human rights fall, everything else tumbles.
“Across every front, those who are already vulnerable are being pushed further to the margins.”
The UN chief called for urgent action to reverse the trend. “We must defend our shared foundations, without compromise,” he said. “The UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the instruments of international human rights law are not a menu. Leaders cannot pick the parts they like and ignore the rest.”