GENEVA
\nThe United Nations chief warned Monday that human rights were being \u201csuffocated\u201d globally, including by wars and violence as well as autocrats crushing opposition and trampling on international law.
\n\u201cHuman rights are the oxygen of humanity,\u201d United Nations chief Antonio Guterres told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
\n\u201cBut one by one, human rights are being suffocated,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cby autocrats, crushing opposition because they fear what a truly empowered people would do. By a patriarchy that keeps girls out of school and women at arm\u2019s length from basic rights.\u201d
\nWarmongers meanwhile \u201cthumb their nose at international law, international humanitarian law and the UN Charter\u201d, he said, while wars and violence were stripping people \u201cof their right to food, water and education\u201d.
\nGuterres also pointed to the impact of \u201ca morally bankrupt global financial system\u201d, and to \u201crunaway technologies like artificial intelligence that hold great promise, but also the ability to violate human rights at the touch of a button\u201d.
\nHe highlighted \u201cgrowing intolerance against entire groups \u2014 from Indigenous peoples, to migrants and refugees\u201d, as well as \u201cvoices of division and anger who view human rights not as a boon to humanity, but as a barrier to the power, profit and control they seek\u201d.
\nAll combined, \u201cthis represents a direct threat to all of the hard-won mechanisms and systems established over the last 80 years to protect and advance human rights\u201d, he warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GENEVA The United Nations chief warned Monday that human rights were being \u201csuffocated\u201d globally, including by wars and violence as well as autocrats crushing opposition and trampling on international law. \u201cHuman rights are the oxygen of humanity,\u201d United Nations chief Antonio Guterres told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. \u201cBut one by one, human […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448937,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-463651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n