UN rights chief Turk wins second term despite US and Israeli opposition

What the report says

Al Jazeera, citing its staff and Reuters, reported that Volker Turk has been reappointed as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights after a UN member-state vote on Friday. The Austrian lawyer received 144 votes in favour, 10 against and 13 abstentions, extending his tenure for another four years after his current term was due to end on October 11.

The report said the United States, Israel, Russia, North Korea and six other countries opposed the reappointment. If Turk completes the new term, he would become the first person to finish two full four-year terms as UN rights chief since the position was established in 1993. The European Union’s UN delegation welcomed the decision and said it expected to keep working with his office on global human rights protection.

Turk has drawn sharp criticism from Israel and the US over his public positions on Gaza, Lebanon and rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territory. Al Jazeera reported that he has repeatedly called on Israel to follow international humanitarian law and has said states are accountable for human rights violations they commit. Israel’s Foreign Ministry accused his office of bias and failing to uphold UN neutrality, while a US representative said the UN human rights system had lost credibility under his leadership.

The vote also prompted criticism of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s handling of the process. According to the report, Guterres informed regional groups earlier in July that he intended to reappoint Turk, with the vote taking place only weeks later. The decision matters because the UN rights office is one of the world body’s most visible mechanisms for monitoring abuses and shaping international human rights pressure.