Syrian and Irani refugees arrive at Skyla Sykamia in Lesvos Greece, October 2015 Credit: Ggia/Wikimedia Commons
The UN is expressing alarm over growing disrespect for human rights around the world, with Europe’s hate toward migrants being particularly perturbing.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein delivered a rebuke of the retrogressive human rights trends in a speech marking the 25th anniversary of the World Conference on Human Rights.
The “universal, indivisible, interdependent and interrelated” nature of human rights seemed instead to be “headed in another direction,” he pointed out.
When 171 states signed on the 1993 Vienna Declaration and Program of Action, to strengthen human rights around the world, it was widely viewed as the blueprint for rights in the post-Cold-War era.
Hungarian-Serbian border barrier, Photo: Photo: Délmagyarország/Schmidt Andrea /Wikimedia Commons
The conference also set in motion the establishment of the UN human rights office, or OHCHR, which Zeid now heads.
Addressing the conference in Vienna on Tuesday, he said there was a drift “backwards, to an era when racists and xenophobes deliberately enflamed hatred and discrimination among the public, while carefully cloaking themselves in the guise of democracy and the rule of law.”
In Europe, ethno-populist parties are on the rise in many countries, fuelling hatred and division. Once in power, these parties were deliberately spreading “distorted and false views” of migrants and human rights activists.
“Almost everywhere, across Europe the hatred they direct at migrants has infiltrated the mainstream parties and skewed the political landscape towards greater violence and suffering,” Zeid said.
He called on everyone to stand up for what the Vienna Declaration really represents.
“We need to use this anniversary to begin to mobilize a much broader community to defend human rights with our fierce, and passionate commitment,” Zeid said, stressing the need to make clear “the vital, life-saving importance of human rights for the daily lives and global future of our fellow human beings.”
“There is no time to lose. Let this be a turning point, so that the Vienna Declaration can stand proud – not as a decaying museum piece, but as the flag-bearer for a resurgent movement to build peace and progress,” he added.
