GENEVA, March 4 (Xinhua) -- United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk stressed the importance of peace on Monday while addressing the 55th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
He compared the right to peace to the mother of all human rights, saying that without peace, "all other rights are quashed."
Addressing the ongoing Human Rights Council session, Turk urged states to keep communication channels open, rebuild trust as well as to re-establish a sense of the interconnectedness and shared destiny of all humanity to regain a mindset of peace.
"Rarely has humanity faced so many rapidly spiraling crises," he said, telling the Council that around the world, 55 conflicts are flaring, and widespread violations of international humanitarian and human rights law are generating devastating impacts on millions of civilians.
Noting that the war in Gaza has already generated dangerous spillover in neighboring countries, Turk said he is deeply concerned that in this powder keg, any spark could lead to a much broader conflagration.
"This would have implications for every country in the Middle East, and many beyond it," he said.
The military escalation in southern Lebanon between Israel, Hezbollah and other armed groups is extremely worrying, almost 200 people have been killed in Lebanon, and some 90,000 internally displaced, with extensive damage to health facilities, schools, and vital infrastructure, he elaborated.
Some 80,000 Israelis have also been displaced from border areas of Israel, he added.
Besides the war in Gaza, conflicts in other regions, including the Horn of Africa, Sudan and the Sahel, could also escalate sharply, he said. "It is imperative to do everything possible to avoid a wider conflagration."
According to the UN rights chief, peace is built and nourished through rights, so it is by upholding and advancing the full spectrum of human rights, including the right to development and the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, that states can craft durable solutions.
"Because they respond to the universal truth of our equality and the inextinguishable desire for freedom and justice," he concluded. ■
