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STORY: UN / TURK HUMAN RIGHTS
TRT: 02:45
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 15 OCTOBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE – NEW YORK CITY
1.Wide shot, United Nations headquarters
15 OCTOBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Overall, in 2024, my 2,000 staff working in 92 countries undertook some 11,000 human rights monitoring missions.”
4. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“This is not business as usual. Our operations are stretched to the limit, in some areas falling below the minimum resources needed to function effectively.”
6. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“For this year, the Office is expecting a combined shortfall of 103 million dollars between the regular and voluntary budgets. This represents a gap of almost 20 percent of the bare minimum needed to effectively implement our mandate.”
8. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“In concrete terms, 14 accountability mechanisms supported by my Office were only staffed at around 50 per cent of the required needs. The Commission of Inquiry on the urgent situation in Eastern DRC, mandated by the Human Rights Council, is not financed at all.”
10. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“The reviews by the treaty bodies of 35 state reports and of over 230 individual complaints had to be postponed. Our teams working on certain countries, including Colombia, DRC, Myanmar and Yemen have been or will have to be downsized.”
12. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“There is no funding to deploy human rights advisors to twelve countries that UN country teams have requested. We had to close eight such presences this year. 4 out of the 8 planned visits by the Sub-Committee on the prevention of torture for 2025 had to be postponed. As you can see, the global human rights system is hanging by a thread, and the impact will be felt by people around the world.”
14. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Financial choices reveal underlying values — right now, we need to move from lip-service to concrete support. Human rights - and the UN Human Rights Office - need full-scale financial, political and strategic support. Governments and others will not always like or agree with what we have to say. That is inherent to the very nature of human rights. We speak out publicly, whenever necessary, to achieve the greatest positive impact. When the alarm rings, our duty is not to turn it off, but to act.”
16. Wide shot, Conference Room 1
“The global human rights system is hanging by a thread, and the impact will be felt by people around the world,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk as he briefed the Third Committee of the General Assembly on the financial crisis facing his Office.
Türk appeared before the Committee, which examines human rights questions and interacts with special rapporteurs and independent experts, to highlight the consequences of the deepening funding shortfall for the UN Human Rights Office.
“Overall, in 2024, my 2,000 staff working in 92 countries undertook some 11,000 human rights monitoring missions,” he said. But he warned, “Our operations are stretched to the limit, in some areas falling below the minimum resources needed to function effectively.”
Türk told delegates that his Office faced “a combined shortfall of 103 million dollars between the regular and voluntary budgets,” representing a gap of almost 20 percent of the “bare minimum needed to effectively implement our mandate.”
He also said, “In concrete terms, 14 accountability mechanisms supported by my Office were only staffed at around 50 per cent of the required needs.”
Moreover, he noted, the Commission of Inquiry on the urgent situation in Eastern DRC, mandated by the Human Rights Council, is not financed at all.
Türk said the resource gap had forced delays in 35 state reports and 230 individual complaints, adding that “teams working on certain countries, including Colombia, DRC, Myanmar and Yemen have been or will have to be downsized.”
The UN rights chief also said, “there is no funding to deploy human rights advisors to twelve countries that UN country teams have requested. We had to close eight such presences this year. Four out of the eight planned visits by the Sub-Committee on the Prevention of Torture for 2025 had to be postponed.”
“Financial choices reveal underlying values — right now, we need to move from lip-service to concrete support,” Türk said. “Human rights - and the UN Human Rights Office - need full-scale financial, political and strategic support.”
Türk’s briefing was part of the Third Committee’s annual consideration of human rights questions, including reports from the Human Rights Council, special rapporteurs, and treaty bodies.
