UN human rights chief wins unprecedented 2nd term despite opposition from US, Israel

Foreign Ministry denounces move as a ‘moral failure’; Washington warns of ‘consequences’ for what envoy calls ‘procedural overreach, backroom deals and misuse of UN posts’

The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Friday to extend the term of UN Human Rights chief Volker Turk for four more years, in spite of opposition from Israel, the United States and Russia.

Turk has been a harsh critic of Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

UN member nations rejected a US proposal to delay the vote until the end of next week as well as a Russian proposal to extend Türk’s term just until the end of the year. The vote in the 193-member General Assembly to reappoint Türk was 144-10, with 13 abstentions.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who has worked closely with Turk in the past and steps down in December, proposed the second four-year term for Turk when his existing term expires in October.

No other human rights chief has served two full terms.

The Foreign Ministry had called Guterres’s re-proposal of Turk a “moral failure” and said the choice should be left to the secretary-general’s successor.

Turk has condemned what he calls Israel’s “mass killing” in Gaza, while some, including his own staff, have expressed regret that he did not call the killings a genocide — an allegation Israel vehemently denies.

While Turk got strong support, the votes and speeches also reflected concern that Guterres quietly nominated the Austrian lawyer this month after private consultations, with no public discussion.

US deputy ambassador Jeff Bartos warned before the vote that reappointing Turk would prove that the General Assembly “is dysfunctional” and that the vote “was quietly shoved onto the agenda at the last minute to bypass meaningful review.

“Make no mistake, if this assembly tolerates procedural overreach, backroom deals and the misuse of UN posts, there will be consequences,” he warned. “The United States will immediately reassess our engagement, participation and funding.”

The Trump administration already owes nearly $4 billion to the UN for its regular dues and for the separate budget for UN peacekeeping operations.

Russia’s deputy ambassador, Dmitry Chumakov, said Guterres had sown discord among UN members and accused Turk of “political bias” and promoting “Western geopolitical interests under the pretext of concern for human rights.”

Speaking for the European Union, Ireland’s UN Ambassador Fergal Mythen reaffirmed the 27-nation bloc’s “wholehearted support” for Turk.

“The European Union believes that Mr. Turk has demonstrably fulfilled responsibilities entrusted to him effectively and with integrity in an objective and non-selective manner over the past four years,” Mythen said. He takes on another term when “the multiplication of obstacles and challenges and rights violations is relentless, and the promotion and protection of all human rights becomes ever more contested.”

Guterres, whose own second five-year term ends Dec. 31, sent letters to regional groups at the United Nations this month informing them of his intention to reappoint Turk. The African group had no objection, but the Latin American countries had several, including Nicaragua, Argentina and Paraguay.

Guterres ‘following rules’ on reappointment, UN says

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Guterres was following the 1993 resolution that established a UN high commissioner for human rights and allows for a second term.

“The secretary-general is doing things in a very transparent manner, following the rules and his authority,” Dujarric told reporters Friday. “Consultations were had with member states prior to this and with regional groups.”

As human rights chief, the longtime UN functionary who worked for Guterres at United Nations headquarters in New York, Turk has expressed concerns on issues in China as diverse as the fate of detained individuals — like artist Gao Zhen, lawyer Yu Wensheng and media mogul Jimmy Lai — and counterterrorism and assimilation practices that affect ethnic minorities including the Uyghurs in the regions of Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Tibet.

Critics insist he could have done more to publicly follow up on a report issued by his predecessor, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, that said China’s discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in Xinjiang may amount to crimes against humanity.

Former head of Human Rights Watch Ken Roth said: “The biggest stain on Turk’s reputation is his utter abandonment of the Uyghurs.”

Turk has used both private engagement with Beijing and public advocacy to support human rights in China, his office said. Roth called that “an admission that he is doing nothing, that he’s putting the plight of the Uyghurs on the deep back burner, and is just pretending to care.”

The Chinese government denies the Uyghurs have been or are being persecuted. It maintains its policies in Xinjiang rooted out terrorism and religious extremism after sporadic bouts of violence rocked the region in previous decades.