World leaders gathering for the United Nations General Assembly's annual General Debate should call for action to end the global human rights crises, Human Rights Watch said.
During the sessions from September 20 to 30, 2024, the situations in Palestine, Sudan, Ukraine, Haiti, Myanmar, Venezuela, and Afghanistan should top the agenda. At the UN Summit of the Future, leaders should also seek systemic changes to tackle economic injustice and promote the right to a healthy environment.
"World leaders at the UN General Assembly should commit to bold steps to end atrocity crimes in the world's worst crises and hold those responsible accountable," said Louis Charbonneau, UN director at Human Rights Watch. "They should endorse concrete proposals at the Summit of the Future to address poverty, economic injustice, and the climate crisis, and the threats they pose to humanity. The world's leaders need to demonstrate that they are willing to act to uphold human rights."
On September 22 to 23, world leaders will participate in the Summit of the Future and are expected to endorse a "Pact for the Future," which delegations have been negotiating for months. The nonbinding declaration is intended to be a roadmap for the future of the UN and international cooperation among the 193 UN member states. The latest draft includes language on the centrality of human rights and the need for global economic policy reforms. It calls for a transition away from fossil fuels in a just and equitable way, showing the need for urgent government action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent the worst impacts of climate change.
Diplomats working on the pact have expressed concern that Russia, China, Pakistan, and some other delegations have sought to weaken or even remove the language on human rights, including on women's rights and gender.
The draft pact includes important commitments on economic justice and reforming the international financial architecture. Leaders should promote the concept of a human rights economy, which would anchor economic, fiscal, and policy decisions in existing human rights obligations. Some Global North governments have sought to dilute commitments critical to a human rights economy, such as support for a proposed UN treaty on international tax cooperation.
The draft pact's failure to call for a new international treaty to prohibit autonomous weapons systems is a missed opportunity to energize negotiations for a treaty by 2026, even though it has broad international support.
The Pact for the Future also calls for reforming the UN Security Council, notably by limiting the scope and use of the veto by its five permanent members. Russia, China, and the United States have often used their veto power to block council action aimed at preventing atrocity crimes. Limiting the use of the veto would allow for timely and decisive Security Council action.
In New York, leaders should press for actions in Israel and Palestine that would end the widespread suffering. They should urge Israel, and all states, to abide by the General Assembly's recent resolution calling for the full implementation of the International Court of Justice ruling on the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel's policies toward Palestinians living there.
They should accept Palestinian evacuees needing medical care, and press for Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups to comply with the court's repeated orders to open Gaza's crossings for humanitarian aid and allow access to all hostages and detainees.
Leaders should endorse suspending arms transfers to Israel and to Palestinian armed groups because of the risk that the weapons would be used in unlawful attacks on civilians. They should support UN Secretary-General António Guterres' demand for accountability for the deaths of hundreds of UN staff and aid workers in Gaza.
World leaders, as well as the UN leadership, have failed to confront the conflict in Sudan, including the warring parties' obstruction and pillaging of aid, even as part of the country is already enduring famine. They have also failed to prevent ongoing violations of the existing arms embargo, including by the United Arab Emirates, or to stop the warring parties from acquiring new weapons likely to be used to commit further atrocity crimes.
The secretary-general should propose to the Security Council detailed options to protect Sudanese civilians, which the council should urgently adopt and carry out. A civilian protection mission in Sudan is needed in areas where civilians are at particular risk of further atrocities, notably in Darfur, where ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity have been documented.
With respect to Myanmar, leaders should press for international action in the face of Security Council paralysis in addressing junta abuses. They should end the global neglect of the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban have deprived women and girls of nearly all their rights three years after regaining power.
In Haiti, the Security Council authorized the deployment of a Kenyan-led Multinational Security Support Mission in 2023 to help restore security, but it remains under-resourced. Criminal groups commit widespread abuses, depriving Haitians access to essential goods and services, leaving nearly half the population in need of humanitarian aid.
World leaders should call upon Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro to end repression of protesters and other rights violations. Maduro should immediately publish precinct-level tally sheets from the July 28 election, permit independent verification of the results, and respect the will of the Venezuelan people as expressed at the polls.
Leaders should not ignore rights violations by powerful governments. They need to support action to address Russia's widespread war crimes against Ukrainian civilians. They should seek to address China's continued crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in Xinjiang, and heightened repression in Hong Kong, Tibet, and throughout China. Two years on, the UN leadership has not followed up on the recommendations of the high commissioner for human rights, who in Xinjiang found possible crimes against humanity.
Broad support is needed for action on a treaty for crimes against humanity, which unlike for genocide and apartheid, has no specific international treaty.
"The world is overwhelmed with human rights crises, but leaders often fail to take advantage of the tools they have to pressure governments to end human rights violations and hold those responsible to account," Charbonneau said. "World leaders should use General Debate events to kick-start new approaches grounded in international law for all countries, whether friend or foe."
