GENEVA: The UN human rights chief said on Monday that ending the nearly year-long war in Gaza is a priority and he asked countries to act on what he called the Zionist entity’s “blatant disregard” for international law in the occupied Palestinian territories. Nearly 41,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the Zionist entity unleashed a military campaign on Oct 7, 2023. The conflict has also fueled a surge in violence in the Zionist-occupied West Bank.

“Ending that war and averting a full-blown regional conflict is an absolute and urgent priority,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a speech at the start of the five-week UN Human Rights Council session in Geneva. “States must not — cannot — accept blatant disregard for international law, including binding decisions of the (UN) Security Council and orders of the International Court of Justice, neither in this nor any other situation.”

He cited an opinion released by the UN top court in July that called the Zionist entity’s

occupation illegal and Turk said this situation must be “comprehensively addressed”. Turk’s comments were given in a broad speech marking the mid-way point of his four-year term as UN rights chief where he described massive challenges around the world and a crisis of political leadership. The session will also debate crises in Sudan, Afghanistan and Ukraine.

“It seems to me we are at a fork in the road. We can either continue on our current path — a treacherous ‘new normal’ — and sleepwalk into a dystopian future,” he said in a speech met with applause from diplomats. He denounced the increased use of the death penalty and “alarming regressions” on gender equality, in reference to new morality laws in Afghanistan. In Western countries like Britain, Germany and the United States, politicians risk spurring violence by scapegoating migrants and minorities during election periods, he said.

Currently, he warned, the world appears comfortable with the “crossing of innumerable red lines, or readiness to toe right up to them”. Turk said that during a record year for elections globally, such votes matter. “With some elections already having taken place, and others still to come this year, I urge all voters to keep in mind the issues that matter most to them — be it a home, education for their children, their health or job, justice, their family and loved ones, the environment, to be free from violence, tackling corruption, being heard,” he said.

“These are all human rights issues,” he said. “I urge voters to ask themselves which of the political platforms or candidates will work for the human rights of everyone.” The world’s new normal, he said, “cannot be endless, vicious military escalation and increasingly horrifying, technologically advanced methods of warfare, control, and repression”. He warned against a “free-for-all spread of disinformation, smothering facts and the ability to make free and informed choices”.

Turk also slammed “heated rhetoric and simplistic fixes, erasing context, nuance, and empathy. Paving the way for hate speech and the dire consequences that inevitably follow”. “I urge all voters to be vigilant. Be wary of the shrill voices, the ‘strongman’ types that throw glitter in our eyes, offering illusory solutions that deny reality,” he said. “Know that when one group is singled out as a scapegoat for society’s ills, one day your own might be next.”

Turk, a former lawyer from Austria, also used the speech to defend his record, after criticism from some that his policy of engaging China over alleged abuses has been too soft. “I believe in engagement, frank exchanges and keeping dialogue open, even more so in the face of fierce disagreement,” he said. – Agencies