UN human rights office in 'survival mode' amid major funding cuts

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Dec ⁠10 (Reuters) - United ⁠Nations human ‍rights chief Volker Turk said on Wednesday that his office was in "survival mode" due to major funding cuts from global donors, ‍while rights violations and needs in conflict-affected areas surge.

"Our resources have ​been slashed, along with funding for human rights organisations – including at the grassroots level – around ​the world. We are in survival mode," the high commissioner for the U.N. human rights office (OHCHR) told reporters.

OHCHR has $90 million less in funding than it needed this year, which resulted ​in 300 jobs cuts, directly impacting the office's work, Turk said.

"Essential work has had to be cut, including on Colombia, the Democratic Republic of ​the Congo, Myanmar, Tunisia and other countries at a time when the needs are rising," Turk said.

He ‌said country visits by UN special rapporteurs, who are independent experts, as well as investigative missions by fact-finding bodies have been ​reduced, while dialogues with states on their ⁠compliance with UN human rights treaties have had to be postponed, with the number of state parties reviews falling to ‌103 from 145.

"All this has extensive ripple effects on international and national efforts to protect human rights," Turk said, pointing to grave human rights concerns in Sudan, Gaza and ‌Ukraine.

"I am extremely worried that we might see in Kordofan a repeat of the atrocities ‌that have been committed in al-Fashir," he said, referring to the conflict in Sudan.

Sudan's paramilitary Rapid Support Forces took over Darfur's city of al-Fashir in late October in one ‍of its biggest gains of the two-and-a-half-year war with Sudan's army. This month, advances have continued eastward into the Kordofan ⁠region, and they seized the country's biggest oil field.

Russia's increased use of powerful long-range weapons had driven a sharp rise in civilian casualties in Ukraine - with these rising 24% from the same period last year, he said.

(Reporting by Olivia Le PoidevinEditing by Madeline Chambers, Miranda Murray)

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