United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged nations on Monday to work toward ending the Russia-Ukraine war, calling for a just and lasting peace on the conflict’s third anniversary.
“We must spare no effort to bring an end to this conflict, and achieve a just and lasting peace in line with the UN Charter, international law and General Assembly resolutions,” he told a high-level meeting of the UN.
Human Rights Council in Geneva, repeating that Russia’s actions in February 2022 violated the global body’s founding document, the UN charter.
UN Showdown
The UN chief’s remarks come ahead of a UNGA showdown on Ukraine later on Monday in New York, with the United States urging states to back its resolution which it says is focused on ending the war and pits it against a rival text by Ukraine and European allies.
That motion repeats the UN demand that Russia withdraw its troops and halt hostilities, which has received overwhelming support in the past.
The UN split illustrates the position Ukraine finds itself in as it enters the fourth year of all-out war with Russia, with the backing of its staunchest ally the United States fraying amid growing pressure from Washington for a deal to end the war.
Peace Requires ‘Accountability’
In an address to the same meeting, UN rights chief Volker Turk said that any sustainable peace “must be anchored in the rights, needs and aspirations of Ukraine’s people, in accountability, and in the principles of the United Nations Charter and international law.”
Washington left its seat at the Human Rights Council empty, in line with U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to disengage from the body which is the only intergovernmental organisation that protects human rights.
Russian Invasion
Russia, which says it had no choice but to launch what it calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine due to the NATO alliance’s eastwards expansion, will address the meeting on Wednesday.
In the same speech, Guterres said that human rights around the world are being “suffocated” and referred to intolerable levels of death and destruction in Gaza as well as horrifying human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Turk, an Austrian lawyer, warned that the system of global protections built in the decades after World War Two has never before been under so much strain.
(With inputs from Reuters)
