UN News Today 03 March 2025 |

Nations must stop global order from crumbling: UN rights chief

As well over 100 conflicts rage around the world, UN human rights chief Volker Türk urged the international community to defend fundamental freedoms and the institutions founded to promote them.

The High Commissioner for Human Rights also spoke out against “unelected tech oligarchs”:

“A handful of unelected tech oligarchs have our data: they know where we live, what we do, our genes and our health conditions, our thoughts, our habits, our desires and our fears. They know us better than we know ourselves.  And they know how to manipulate us.”

Mr. Türk was delivering his global update to the Human Rights Council that covered more than 30 countries of concern.

The High Commissioner said that it was “outrageous” that legal safeguards for non-combatants were being repeatedly ignored, meaning that civilians are deliberately attacked and sexual violence and famine are used as weapons of war.

“We cannot allow the fundamental global consensus around international norms and institutions, built painstakingly over decades, to crumble before our eyes,” he told Member States.

Deep concern from humanitarians over the announced halting of aid into Gaza by Israel

Staying with the UN rights chief who also insisted on Monday that aid deliveries into Gaza should resume immediately.

Volker Türk’s comments followed Israel’s announcement that it planned to halt aid flowing into the shattered enclave, after proposing to extend the first phase of the ceasefire which ended at the weekend and which would allow Israeli troops to stay in Gaza.

Mr. Türk said that the Gaza had been “razed” by constant Israeli bombardment in response to the “horrific” Hamas-led attacks on Israel that sparked the war in October 2023.

The UN High Commissioner insisted that any ceasefire “must be rooted in human rights, including the right to self-determination, the rule of law and accountability”. He added that all hostages must be freed, that those detained arbitrarily must be released and that humanitarian aid into Gaza must resume immediately.

The UN’s top aid official, Tom Fletcher, responded with alarm to the Israeli decision to halt humanitarians supplies into Gaza.

Mr. Fletcher – who said that the ceasefire “must hold” – pointed out that under international humanitarian law, the UN “must be allowed access to deliver vital lifesaving aid…We need to get aid in and the hostages out,” he said.

Oceans of opportunity squeezed dry by unsustainable use: UNCTAD

The booming ocean economy sustains hundreds of millions of people – but it’s being squeezed dry by overfishing, pollution, climate change and waste.

That’s the alarming message from UN economists who on Monday issued a call for smarter, more concerted action to protect the world’s vast marine spaces for future generations.

In Geneva, the UN trade and development agency, UNCTAD, emphasized that oceans are essential to all life, by sustaining biodiversity, regulating the climate and generating oxygen.

But only $4 billion a year is being invested in making the ocean economy sustainable, far below the $175 billion needed, said UNCTAD economist David Vivas:

“Four billion to conservation of the ocean is nothing less than peanuts.
So basically, politicians are not putting their money where their mouth is.
So this is an important element because this huge part of the planet is being totally invisible in terms of sustainable use conservation for future generations.”

According to the UN agency, the world’s ocean economies have grown 250 per cent since 1995 – far outpacing the global economy, which grew by 190 per cent over the same period.

Daniel Johnson, UN News

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