The Gaza war between Israel and Hamas is a "powder keg" with the potential to spark broader conflict in the Middle East, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said Monday.
Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights also insisted that racially mixed and multicultural societies were not something to fear but should be seen as a benefit to people everywhere.
Türk said it was imperative to to take all possible measures to avoid a wider conflagration.
"The war in Gaza has already generated dangerous spillover in neighbouring countries," he said in his global update to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
"I am 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 that overlapping emergencies made the spectre of spillover conflict very real, and cited the examples of Yemen and Lebanon as places where the Gaza war is having a wider effect.
"The military escalation in southern Lebanon between Israel, Hezbollah and other armed groups is extremely worrying," Türk said.
The UN official contended that almost 200 people had been killed in Lebanon and some 90,000 internally displaced. There was also extensive damage to health facilities, schools and vital infrastructure.
"Incidents in which civilians, including children, paramedics and journalists, have been killed in attacks must be fully investigated," said Türk.
Some 80,000 people have also been displaced from areas in northern Israel along the country's border with Lebanon, he added.
"It is imperative to do everything possible to avoid a wider conflagration," he said.
Yemen concerns
The Gaza war began after the October 7 attack by Hamas, which resulted in the deaths of about 1,160 people in Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.
The Palestinian militants also took hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza.
Israel's retaliatory bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza have killed more than 30,000 people in under five months, most of them women and children, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.
Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels have been targeting Red Sea shipping for months in protest at the war in Gaza.
The Huthis, who control much of war-torn Yemen, say they are attacking Israeli-linked shipping in solidarity with Palestinians in the besieged territory.
The unrest has forced several companies to reroute shipments in the commercially vital waterway, driving up delivery times and costs.
The United States, Israel's key ally, has led reprisal strikes on Huthi targets in Yemen in a bid to quash the attacks.
Türk said the Huthi attacks had not only disrupted global maritime trade but had driven up the price of goods, which has had a significant impact on developing countries.
"There is a serious risk of the conflict extending to Yemen itself, with potentially severe harm to Yemen's people, already suffering from the humanitarian crisis generated by a decade of war," he said.
'Delusional' ideologies
Pernicious "'great replacement' conspiracy theories" spreading in many countries are "delusional" and racist and are directly spurring violence, the United Nations rights chief also warned.
Türk also took aim at the "war on woke,” which he stressed was "really a war on inclusion.”
"In many countries – including in Europe and North America – I am concerned by the apparently growing influence of so-called 'great replacement' conspiracy theories, based on the false notion that Jews, Muslims, non-white people and migrants seek to 'replace' or suppress countries' cultures and peoples," he said.
"These delusional and deeply racist ideas have directly influenced many perpetrators of violence."
The UN rights chief cautioned that "together with the so-called 'war on woke', which is really a war on inclusion, these ideas aim to exclude racial minorities – particularly women from racial minorities – and LGBTQ+ people from full equality.
"Multiculturalism is not a threat. It is the history of humanity and deeply beneficial to us all."
Türk said he deplored escalating attacks on LGBTQ people and their rights. He regretted the fact that discriminatory legislation and policies were spreading.
They have recently been expanded, adopted or are under consideration in Belarus, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Lebanon, Niger, Nigeria, Russia and several US states.
"Recognising the rights of LGBTQ+ people goes to the meaning of equality, and the right of everyone to live free from violence and discrimination," he said.
Türk meanwhile commended the decriminalisation of consensual same-sex relations in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Mauritius, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Singapore in the past two years.
– TIMES/AFP
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