UN marks 75 years of human rights declaration in shadow of Gaza

11/12/2023 19:15

        The U.N. human rights chief urged countries on Monday to work together to defeat threats such as war and pollution at an event to mark 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that risks being overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas conflict.
        
        Ministers, diplomats and activists attended the Geneva event where Volker Turk invoked the spirit in which the newly-formed United Nations adopted the declaration in December 1948, in response to what the document calls "barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind".
        
        "I view today's event as a call to hope, and a call to action," said Turk, an Austrian, who said the declaration had inspired successes such as the end of racial segregation in the United States and apartheid in South Africa.
        
        "At a time of so little solidarity, and so much divisive and short-sighted vision, I view it as a call to overcome polarisation."