UN workers press HR chief to call crisis a genocide
GENEVA: Hundreds of UN staff at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Volker Turk have asked him to explicitly describe the Gaza conflict as an unfolding genocide, according to a letter.
The letter, sent on Wednesday, said the staff consider that the legal criteria for genocide have been met, citing the scale, scope and nature of violations documented there.
“The OHCHR has a strong legal and moral responsibility to denounce acts of genocide,” said the letter, signed by the Staff Committee on behalf of over 500 employees, which called on Turk to take a “clear and public position”.
“Failing to denounce an unfolding genocide undermines the credibility of the UN and the human rights system itself,” it added.
It cited the international body’s perceived moral failure for not doing more to stop the 1994 Rwanda genocide that killed more than one million people.
There was no immediate response from the Israeli foreign ministry.
The Geneva-based human rights agency was created in 1993 and tasked with promoting and protecting rights for all.
Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2025