UN chief warns global rights system is under full-scale attack

Monday 23 February 2026 - 12:20

By: Dakir Madiha

UN chief warns global rights system is under full-scale attack

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that fundamental rights and the rule of law are facing an unprecedented global assault, telling the Human Rights Council in Geneva that human rights are now being openly challenged by those in positions of power. Opening what could be his final in-person address to the UN’s top rights body, he said that the rule of law is increasingly being replaced by the “rule of force” and that this regression is unfolding “in plain sight.” Guterres pointed to the devastating toll of conflicts in Sudan, Gaza and Ukraine as emblematic of the breakdown of international humanitarian norms and the severe suffering of civilians caught in ongoing wars.

He stressed that the erosion of rights is not confined to active battlefields, arguing that governments and other powerful actors in many countries are deliberately and systematically pushing back hard-won protections. He described a world in which mass suffering is normalized, people are treated as instruments in political bargaining, and international law is increasingly dismissed as an obstacle rather than a binding framework. Guterres warned of a tightening clampdown on civic space, citing the jailing of journalists and activists, the closure of civil society organizations, the rollback of women’s rights, the harassment and expulsion of migrants and the vilification of LGBTIQ+ communities in numerous jurisdictions. He also cautioned that artificial intelligence and other digital technologies are being deployed in ways that undermine rights, deepen inequality and enable new forms of surveillance and manipulation.

On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Guterres said the trajectory on the ground is “stark, clear and deliberate,” charging that the prospect of a two-state solution is being dismantled “in broad daylight” and insisting that the international community must not allow this outcome. He denounced grave violations of human rights and international law in the occupied Palestinian territories and reiterated his call for accountability for abuses committed by all parties. He also repeated his condemnation of the violent repression of protests in Iran, placing it within a broader pattern of authorities crushing dissent and civic participation.

Guterres mounted a strong defense of the UN’s human rights machinery, warning that the system is now operating in “survival mode” as it contends with budget cuts, sustained attacks on its independent experts and the withdrawal of the United States from a key universal accountability mechanism. He noted that the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is facing the same financial squeeze confronting the wider UN, after Washington and several other major donors reduced their contributions. A UN spokesperson recently said the United States has paid roughly 160 million dollars of more than 4 billion dollars owed to the organization, underscoring the depth of the funding gap. Guterres warned that humanitarian needs are rising sharply even as available resources shrink and argued that when human rights are weakened, peace, development and humanitarian responses all begin to unravel.