GENEVA: United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said on Wednesday that his office was in “survival mode” due to major funding cuts from global donors, while rights violations and needs in conflict-affected areas surge.
“Our resources have been slashed, along with funding for human rights organizations – including at the grassroots level – around the world. We are in survival mode,” the high commissioner for the UN human rights office (OHCHR) told reporters.
OHCHR has $90 million less in funding than it needed this year, which resulted in 300 jobs cuts, directly impacting the office’s work, Turk said.
“Essential work has had to be cut, including on Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Myanmar, Tunisia and other countries at a time when the needs are rising,” Turk said.
He said country visits by UN special rapporteurs, who are independent experts, as well as investigative missions by fact-finding bodies have been reduced, while dialogues with states on their compliance with UN human rights treaties have had to be postponed, with the number of state parties reviews falling to 103 from 145.
“All this has extensive ripple effects on international and national efforts to protect human rights,” Turk said, pointing to grave human rights concerns in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine.
“I am extremely worried that we might see in Kordofan a repeat of the atrocities that have been committed in Al-Fashir,” he said, referring to the conflict in Sudan.
Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took over Darfur’s city of Al-Fashir in late October in one of its biggest gains of the two-and-a-half-year war with Sudan’s army. This month, advances have continued eastward into the Kordofan region, and they seized the country’s biggest oil field.
Russia’s increased use of powerful long-range weapons had driven a sharp rise in civilian casualties in Ukraine — with these rising 24 percent from the same period last year, he said.
UN human rights office in ‘survival mode’ amid major funding cuts
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UN human rights office in ‘survival mode’ amid major funding cuts
- OHCHR has $90 million less in funding than it needed this year, which resulted in 300 jobs cuts, directly impacting the office’s work, Turk said
- “Essential work has had to be cut”
Ukraine’s Zelensky: We have backed US peace proposals to get a deal done
- “The tactic we chose is for the Americans not to think that we want to continue the war,” Zelensky told The Atlantic
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv had sought to back US peace proposals to end the war with Russia as President Donald Trump seeks to resolve the conflict before November mid-term elections.
Zelensky, in an interview published by The Atlantic on Thursday, said Kyiv was willing to hold both a presidential election and a referendum on a deal, but would not settle for an accord that was detrimental to Ukraine’s interests.
“The tactic we chose is for the Americans not to think that we want to continue the war,” Zelensky told the US-based publication. “That’s why we started supporting their proposals in any format that speeds things along.”
He said Ukraine was “not afraid of anything. Are we ready for elections? We’re ready. Are we ready for a referendum? We’re ready.”
Zelensky has sought to build good relations with Washington since an Oval Office meeting in February 2025 descended into a shouting match with Trump and US Vice President JD Vance.
But he said he had rejected a proposal, reported this week by the Financial Times, to announce the votes on February 24, the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion. A ceasefire and proposed US security guarantees against a future invasion had not yet been settled, he said.
“No one is clinging to power,” The Atlantic quoted him as saying. “I am ready for elections. But for that we need security, guarantees of security, a ceasefire.”
And he added: “I don’t think we should put a bad deal up for a referendum.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Zelensky is not a legitimate negotiating partner because he has not faced election since coming to power in 2019.
Zelensky has said in recent weeks that a document on security guarantees for Ukraine is all but ready to be signed.
But, in his remarks, he acknowledged that details remained unresolved, including whether the US would be willing to shoot down incoming missiles over Ukraine if Russia were to violate the peace.
“This hasn’t been fixed yet,” Zelensky said. “We have raised it, and we will continue to raise these questions...We need all of this to be written out.”
