Overview
- Opening the Human Rights Council session in Geneva, António Guterres said human rights face a full‑scale attack and urged governments to defend international law.
- He cited more than 15,000 civilian deaths in four years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and called for the bloodshed to end.
- He condemned blatant violations in the occupied Palestinian territory and warned the two‑state solution is being stripped away in broad daylight.
- He warned that technology, especially artificial intelligence, is being deployed to suppress rights as vulnerable groups face escalating abuses.
- UN rights chief Volker Türk echoed the alarm about a normalization of force and shifting power dynamics, while reporting pointed to a worsening funding squeeze with US aid cuts under President Trump.