{"id":10427,"date":"2026-09-18T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/?p=10427"},"modified":"2026-09-18T21:21:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T12:21:39","slug":"a-divided-vote-for-the-uns-human-rights-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/news\/a-divided-vote-for-the-uns-human-rights-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"A Divided Vote for the UN\u2019s Human Rights Chief"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Samuel King<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRUSSELS, Belgium<\/strong> (IPS)\u00a0<\/strong>– On 24 July, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly\u00a0reappointed<\/a>\u00a0Volker T\u00fcrk as High Commissioner for Human Rights for a further four years. Only 10 states \u2013 among them Israel, Russia and the USA \u2013 opposed the decision.\uff5cJAPANESE<\/a>\uff5c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u00fcrk is an Austrian lawyer who\u2019s spent almost his entire career in the UN system, from field postings in Kosovo to the UN refugee agency to his present role in Geneva. Because of this, when he became High Commissioner in October 2022, there were concerns he might be more cautious than his predecessors, but he has spoken out about violations committed by the powerful. He criticised<\/a> Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, demanded investigations into deaths in US immigration detention and condemned Israel\u2019s atrocities in Gaza. He has, however, faced criticism for not calling out Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza as genocide and not speaking out enough on China, particularly concerning the situation of Uyghur people in Xinjiang<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vote will make T\u00fcrk the first person<\/a> set to serve two full terms since the post was created in 1993. One early High Commissioner, Mary Robinson, wanted to stay on, but strong US resistance to her positions on its post-9\/11 military interventionism and the 2001 Durban Conference<\/a> \u2014 the UN\u2019s World Conference against Racism, where Israel and the USA walked out due to its focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict \u2014 left her with only a one-year extension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a funding crisis continues to engulf the UN human rights system, continuity matters. US withdrawal<\/a> from funding UN agencies, part of its broader assault<\/a> on the international system in general and human rights bodies in particular, has placed the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) under serious financial strain, forcing staff cuts and reducing capacity to work in countries where human rights violations are taking place. A vacancy or a contested process would have added further disruption at a difficult time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A rushed and contested process<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vote came unexpectedly and moved fast. UN Secretary-General Ant\u00f3nio Guterres informed states of his intention to reappoint T\u00fcrk without a public process, open competition or much time for deliberation. With Guterres\u2019 second term ending this year<\/a>, the move was likely intended to keep the decision off his successor\u2019s desk and prevent opposition from building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most states accepted this, but the USA didn\u2019t. It immediately moved to delay<\/a> the vote, citing insufficient consultation. Ireland, speaking for the European Union, opposed the US motion, which was defeated by 63 votes to 27. The USA\u2019s representative called the process \u2018classic UN cronyism\u2019, accused Guterres of cutting a backroom deal and warned there would be \u2018consequences\u2019. Russia tried a different tactic, proposing to extend T\u00fcrk\u2019s mandate by just 81 days, to the end of 2026, leaving the decision to the next Secretary-General. That too was rejected, by 71 votes to 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Argentina, Burkina Faso, Israel, Mali, Nicaragua, Niger, North Korea, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago and the USA voted against<\/a> T\u00fcrk\u2019s reappointment. The list contains tight US allies, such as Argentina and Israel, and states that align with Russia, such as North Korea and the three military-run states of the Sahel<\/a>, which are increasingly working as a bloc. Under the Trump administration, it\u2019s no longer a surprise to see the USA voting the same way as Russia. Most of the states, including Nicaragua<\/a>, systematically violate human rights. Russia and North Korea both resist any accountability for human rights violations, while the USA particularly objected to T\u00fcrk\u2019s criticism of its war on Iran and migration detention deaths. Israel accused<\/a> the OHCHR of having \u2018erased the atrocities of October 7 and betrayed UN neutrality\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some states that might have been expected to vote against T\u00fcrk, however, supported him<\/a>. Among the 144 who backed his reappointment were the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Syria, all states subject to active UN scrutiny. This suggested that hostility to a specific human rights mandate doesn\u2019t necessarily extend to the whole system, and even heavily scrutinised states may see value in a working relationship with the OHCHR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A vulnerable human rights system<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 13 abstentions and 26 no-shows also deserve attention. Some were procedural, with Ecuador and Paraguay saying afterwards that they wanted more time. Peru cited concerns about limiting the incoming Secretary-General\u2019s flexibility, though its abstention may also reflect T\u00fcrk\u2019s recent criticism<\/a> of Peru\u2019s human rights record, including laws granting amnesty to security forces accused of serious violations during armed conflict between 1980 and 2000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraq, New Zealand, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Uganda all abstained. New Zealand described<\/a> its position as \u2018procedural rather than policy\u2019, but the decision drew sharp domestic criticism, not least given its recent failure to recognise Palestinian statehood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the smaller states that ducked a decision, some likely faced economic or political pressure from the most powerful states to stay quiet, while others may have judged themselves insufficiently protected from the consequences of taking a visible position. This means the vote may reflect vulnerability as much as it measures support for the High Commissioner. As the most powerful states increasingly throw their weight around in the international system, smaller states may have to make calculations about when they can afford to take a position and when they need to stay quiet.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Continuity as the outcome<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Institutional continuity is the immediate outcome, and T\u00fcrk has signalled what he intends to do with it. In a June speech<\/a>, he described an \u2018unprecedented, shameless onslaught against international law\u2019 that\u2019s causing appalling human suffering, insisted the international community must stay focused on fundamentals and declared the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the core treaties \u2018ever more important\u2019. His message to the G7, meeting nearby, was blunt: put human rights at the centre of discussions as a force for stability, not an afterthought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legitimacy and moral authority, however, won\u2019t pay the OHCHR\u2019s bills. Over the next four years, T\u00fcrk must resist<\/a> China, Russia and the USA as they work to undermine the UN bodies that protect human rights. The 144 states that backed T\u00fcrk now carry the responsibility of turning their votes into action. They should ensure the OHCHR is adequately funded and work to bring on board states that abstained, particularly if they did so out of fear. They must show that collective commitment to human rights still counts for something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samuel King<\/strong> is a researcher with the Horizon Europe-funded research project ENSURED: Shaping Cooperation for a World in Transition<\/a> at CIVICUS: World Alliance for Citizen Participation.For interviews or more information, please contact research@civicus.org<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Samuel King BRUSSELS, Belgium (IPS)\u00a0– On 24 July, the United Nations (UN) General Assembly\u00a0reappointed\u00a0Volker T\u00fcrk as High Commissioner for Human Rights for a further four years. Only 10 states \u2013 among them Israel, Russia and the USA \u2013 opposed the decision.\uff5cJAPANESE\uff5c T\u00fcrk is an Austrian lawyer who\u2019s spent almost his entire career in the UN […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10430,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-un-civil-society"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10427"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10442,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10427\/revisions\/10442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inpsjapan.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}