🔻 UN General Assembly extends the mandate of the Human Rights chief for four years

Despite Russia and Israel’s opposition and a warning from the United States, the UN General Assembly, with an overwhelming majority, extended for another four years the mandate of Volker Türk, the organization’s High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In this vote, 144 countries voted in favor on the proposal of António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, 10 countries opposed, and 13 countries abstained. Russia’s counterproposal to extend Türk’s mandate for only two more years, until the end of 2026, had previously also faced opposition from a majority of member states.

Volker Türk, who has been a outspoken critic of Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s actions in Gaza, and who has also called for an investigation into the deaths of people in U.S. immigration detention facilities, faced opposition from all three countries.

Before the vote, the U.S. had warned that if his mandate were extended, it would review the level of its funding and cooperation with the United Nations. The vote has been assessed as yet another sign of the intensifying tensions between the Trump administration and the UN.

Türk, an Austrian jurist and a long-serving staff member of the United Nations, will be the first High Commissioner for Human Rights to serve two full four-year terms in this position.