UN chief decries global rise of 'rule of force'

Human rights are under "full-scale attack around the world", UN chief Antonio Guterres warned Monday, with the most powerful often leading the charge.

"The rule of law is being outmuscled by the rule of force," he told the opening of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"This assault is not coming from the shadows, or by surprise. It is happening in plain sight -- and often led by those who hold the greatest power."

The UN secretary-general did not delve into specific situations, although he did voice outrage at Russia's continuing war in Ukraine, where he said more than 15,000 civilians had been killed in four years of violence.

"It is more than past time to end the bloodshed," he said.

He also highlighted the "blatant violations of human rights, human dignity and international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory".

He charged that the current trajectory in the conflict-torn territories under Israeli occupation was "stark, clear and purposeful: the two-state solution is being stripped away in broad daylight".

"The international community cannot allow it to happen," he insisted.

Suffering 'excused away'

Guterres said the worst conflict-hit areas were not the only places where rights were eroding.

"Around the world, human rights are being pushed back deliberately, strategically and sometimes proudly," he said.

"We are living in a world where mass suffering is excused away, where humans are used as bargaining chips, where international law is treated as a mere inconvenience."

And, he warned, "when human rights fall, everything else tumbles".

The crisis of respect for human rights "mirrors and magnifies every other global fracture", he said, pointing for instance to how "humanitarian needs are exploding while funding collapses".

At the same time, "inequalities are widening at staggering speed (and) countries are drowning in debt and despair", he said.

And he pointed to how "climate chaos is accelerating, and technology, especially artificial intelligence, is increasingly being used in ways that suppress rights, deepen inequality and expose marginalised people to new forms of discrimination both online and offline".

"Across every front, those who are already vulnerable are being pushed further to the margins."

The UN chief called for urgent action to reverse the trend.

"We must defend our shared foundations, without compromise," he said, insisting that "the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the instruments of international human rights law are not a menu".

"Leaders cannot pick the parts they like and ignore the rest."