Archiv: Volker Türk


24.04.2024 - 02:43 [ New York Times ]

U.N. Calls for Inquiry Into Mass Graves at 2 Gaza Hospitals

Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for Palestinian Civil Defense, an emergency services organization, said some of the bodies found in Khan Younis were handcuffed, shot in the head or wearing detainee uniforms. He accused Israeli forces of killing and burying them. Israel’s military declined to address those claims on Tuesday, and they could not be independently verified.

On Tuesday, hours after the top U.N. human rights official called for an inquiry into the mass graves, the Israeli military said that its forces had exhumed bodies that were buried by Palestinians “in the area” of Nasser Hospital and examined them as part of an effort to locate hostages. It did not comment on the report of the mass grave at Al-Shifa.

24.04.2024 - 02:24 [ United Nations ]

Mass graves in Gaza show victims’ hands were tied, says UN rights office

The development follows the recovery of hundreds of bodies “buried deep in the ground and covered with waste” over the weekend at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis, central Gaza, and at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City in the north. A total of 283 bodies were recovered at Nasser Hospital, of which 42 were identified.

“Among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded, while others were found tied with their hands…tied and stripped of their clothes,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Citing the local health authorities in Gaza, Ms. Shamdasani added that more bodies had been found at Al-Shifa Hospital.

24.04.2024 - 02:14 [ theNationalNews.com ]

UN ‚horrified‘ after more than 300 bodies found in mass grave at Nasser Hospital in Gaza

The UN voiced its alarm at the reports, with the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, saying he was „horrified“.

He called for an independent investigation into the killing of civilians at Nasser Hospital and what was Gaza‘s largest medical complex, Al Shifa Hospital.

“The intentional killing of civilians, detainees and others who are ‚hors de combat‘ is a war crime,” Mr Turk said.

“We feel the need to raise the alarm because clearly there have been multiple bodies discovered,” Mr Turk‘s representative Ravina Shamdasani said.

18.12.2023 - 18:02 [ UN humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) ]

Chile: Operation Condor judgment major win for accountability – Türk

GENEVA (15 December 2023) – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk today hailed Chile’s Supreme Court judgement on Operation Condor – a notorious campaign coordinated among South America’s dictatorships in the 70s and 80s to persecute political opponents and dissidents – as a major step towards accountability for thousands of victims.

The former dictatorships in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay implemented Operation Condor to search for, persecute, torture, summarily kill and forcibly disappear people perceived as dissidents across the region. They used a myriad of tactics to eliminate them, including throwing people out of aeroplanes and helicopters.

On 14 December, in a unanimous ruling, Chile’s Supreme Court confirmed the convictions of 22 agents of the dissolved Directorate of National Intelligence (DINA) for the kidnappings and qualified homicides of some victims of the Operation Condor, and ordered reparation measures.

27.04.2023 - 17:49 [ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ]

UN Human Rights Chief urges UK to reverse ‘deeply troubling’ Public Order Bill

The Public Order Bill, which has now been passed by Parliament in the United Kingdom, is deeply troubling legislation that is incompatible with the UK’s international human rights obligations regarding people’s rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned on Thursday.

“This new law imposes serious and undue restrictions on these rights that are neither necessary nor proportionate to achieve a legitimate purpose as defined under international law. This law is wholly unnecessary as UK police already have the powers to act against violent and disruptive demonstrations,” Türk said.

19.04.2023 - 10:11 [ Sudan Tribune ]

UNHCR commissioner calls immediate cessation of hostilities in Sudan

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, has called for an immediate end to hostilities in Sudan and urged the Sudan Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces to return to negotiations.