Europe must 'wake up' to Israel's war crimes, warns UN human rights boss
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said Europe is 'witnessing utter disregard for civilian life.'
Europe needs to “wake up” to the scale of Israel's war crimes in Gaza as it will be something it will have to “answer for” in the future, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has told a conference in Ireland.
Volker Türk said his office will make sure Israel is “held to account” at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the “genocide case”.
Addressing the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) in Dublin, the commissioner said:
- Accumulation of power by private tech companies is “frightening” and posed “one of the biggest challenges” countries face in terms of the adverse impact on social cohesion;
- Hate speech has become the “new normal” and that extremism and fascism was driving the “dehumanisation” of minorities;
- Recent clampdowns on protests in some European countries, including those related to Gaza, was a matter of “great concern”;
Introducing the commissioner, a senior official in the Department of Foreign Affairs said Ireland was going to seek a seat on the UN Human Rights Council for 2025-2027.
Political director Gerard Keown said Tánaiste Simon Harris would next week launch Ireland’s thematic priorities at the UN General Assembly, which will include economic, social and cultural rights as well as civic and political rights.
Mr Türk told the event: “From Gaza to Sudan to Myanmar to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, we are witnessing utter disregard for civilian life and obstructing lifesaving aid. Attacks on markets, schools and health facilities are shockingly commonplace, and grave breaches of international law.”
He said Russia has recently launched “some of the most massive air strikes” in Ukraine since the war began.
“My team on the ground has been documenting widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment, including sexual violence, against Ukrainian prisoners and civilians," he said.
He added: “Israel’s mass killing of Palestinian civilians and its extensive destruction in Gaza; its blocking of sufficient quantities of lifesaving aid and the ensuing starvation of civilians; its killing of journalists, UN staff and NGO workers; and its repeated war crimes are a shock to our humanity. Israel has a case to answer before the International Cout of Justice, and the evidence continues to mount.”
Mr Türk said the international community needs to "stop the flow of arms to Israel that may violate international law", press for a ceasefire and the release of hostages, secure humanitarian access, oppose annexation in the West Bank and back Palestinians’ right to self-determination.
He said the Israeli government does not allow his office to operate in Gaza but that they continued to use national staff and a mobile team in Jordan to document “war crimes and crimes against humanity”.
He said these teams will “make sure Israel is held to account in the [ICJ] on the genocide case”.
The commissioner said the lack of progress in the EU at adopting a uniform position on Israel was “hugely frustrating”.
He said he hopes “everyone in Europe wakes up” and realizes that it's not just about “double standards”, given its position on Ukraine, but something that Europe will “have to answer for in the future”.
