UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. human rights chief Volker Türk won a second term Friday despite opposition from the United States, Russia and Israel to keep him in one of the most controversial United Nations posts for four more years.
U.N. member nations rejected a U.S. 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.
While he got strong support, the votes and speeches also reflected concern that Secretary-General António Guterres quietly nominated the Austrian lawyer this month after private consultations, with no public discussion, as the U.N. chief nears the end of his own 10-year tenure.
Türk's job as the U.N. rights chief, by its nature, is tricky: It requires speaking out against rights violations by the governments of the countries that make up the membership of the world body. For instance, Türk has sharply criticized Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Türk, whose term was supposed to expire on Oct. 11, has faced opposition from critics and some countries for his criticism of Israel’s attacks in Gaza and his approach to China’s crackdown on its Uyghur minority.
Russia called Guterres’ effort to give Türk four more years as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights “unprecedented.” None of his predecessors have served two full terms since the job was created in 1993.
Russia's extension proposal would have left the choice of a new human rights chief to the next secretary-general, with Guterres’ second five-year term ending Dec. 31. Six candidates are vying to be the new U.N. chief.
Guterres sent letters to regional groups at the United Nations earlier this month informing them of his intention to reappoint Türk. The African group had no objection, but the Latin American countries had several, including Nicaragua, Argentina and Paraguay.
The U.S. State Department called the rushed vote “another example of the U.N.’s inherent corruption and incompetence.”
“Volker Turk has turned a blind eye to real atrocities and instead pursued a radical ideological agenda,” the department said. “We will not allow the UN Secretary-General (SYG) to reward his crony with a cushy job extension he has done nothing to earn.”
Israel's Foreign Ministry called Guterres' action to get a second term for Türk the U.N. secretary-general's “latest moral failure,” saying on social media that the choice should be left to his successor.
“After years of bias against Israel, the answer is accountability — not rewriting the rules,” the ministry said.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric says Guterres was following the 1993 resolution that established a U.N. 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 earlier Friday. “Consultations were had with member states prior to this and with regional groups.”
Türk “is ready to serve” a new term, rights office spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said. She noted the job calls for the “promotion and protection of human rights everywhere, and as a part of this, he sees it as his role to engage with all states.”
As human rights chief, the longtime U.N. functionary who worked for Guterres at United Nations headquarters in New York, Türk 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.
Türk also has stopped short of joining independent U.N. rights experts who have accused Israel of genocide against Palestinians during its war against Hamas in Gaza. Israel vehemently denies those claims.
Former head of Human Rights Watch Ken Roth called Türk “a disaster” and said, “the biggest stain on Türk’s reputation is his utter abandonment of the Uyghurs.” He called them victims of the most severe state persecution that Türk has ignored.
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.
Türk 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.”
Roth said Türk has a major problem because the job of U.N. human rights commissioner “should be about stirring up public pressure, and you do that by being tough, provocative, timely.”
He “has succeeded in making a powerful position largely innocuous,” talking about issues in a way “that makes people’s eyes glaze over,” Roth said.
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Associated Press writers Jamey Keaten in Geneva, Farnoush Amiri in New York and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.
