UN human rights office in ‘survival mode’ amid major funding cuts
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UN human rights chief Volker Turk says essential work by his department has been cut at a time when the needs are rising.
PHOTO: EPA
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GENEVA – UN human rights chief Volker Turk said on Dec 10 that his office is in “survival mode” because of major funding cuts from global donors, while rights violations and needs in conflict-affected areas are surging.
“Our resources have been slashed, along with funding for human rights organisations, including at the grassroots level, around the world. We are in survival mode,” the high commissioner for the UN human rights office (OHCHR) told reporters.
OHCHR has US$90 million (S$116.7 million) less in funding than it needs in 2025, which has resulted in the loss of 300 jobs, directly impacting the office’s work, Mr Turk said.
“Essential work has had to be cut, including on Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Tunisia and other countries, at a time when the needs are rising,” he said.
He added that country visits by UN special rapporteurs, who are independent experts, as well as investigative missions by fact-finding bodies have been reduced, while dialogues with states on their compliance with UN human rights treaties have had to be postponed, with the number of state party reviews falling from 145 to 103.
“All this has extensive ripple effects on international and national efforts to protect human rights,” Mr Turk said, pointing to grave human rights concerns in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine.
“I am extremely worried that we might see in Kordofan a repeat of the atrocities that have been committed in El-Fasher,” he said, referring to the conflict in Sudan.
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took over Darfur’s city of El-Fasher in late October in one of its biggest gains of the 2½-year war with Sudan’s army. In December, advances have continued eastward into the Kordofan region, and they have seized the country’s biggest oil field.
Russia’s increased use of powerful long-range weapons has driven a sharp rise in civilian casualties in Ukraine – with these rising 24 per cent from the same period in 2024, he said. REUTERS
