NEW YORK, September 19 (IPS) – World leaders gathering on the United Nations Basic Meeting from September 22-30, 2025, ought to decide to defending the UN from highly effective governments looking for to defund and undermine the group’s capability to advertise human rights and worldwide justice, Human Rights Watch mentioned at present.
On the eve of the Basic Meeting’s annual basic debate, world leaders will maintain a summit on the state of affairs in Palestine, which French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are anticipated to preside over.
“Human rights and the UN itself are within the crosshairs of highly effective governments to an unprecedented extent,” mentioned Federico Borello, interim government director of Human Rights Watch. “World leaders ought to pledge motion to make sure the world physique has the sources and political assist it wants to hold out its lifesaving human rights and humanitarian work all over the world – in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Haiti, and elsewhere persons are in want.”
Governments also needs to take motion to cease Israel’s escalating atrocities towards Palestinians in Gaza and the West Financial institution, Human Rights Watch mentioned. They need to condemn and take steps to counter US sanctions towards Worldwide Legal Court docket (ICC) officers, distinguished Palestinian organizations, and a UN skilled.
They need to rally behind establishments just like the ICC, which is combating impunity for conflict crimes and different atrocities in Myanmar, Israel/Palestine, Sudan, Ukraine, and elsewhere across the globe.
World leaders ought to use the September 22 Palestine convention to publicly commit to motion aimed toward ending many years of impunity for Israeli authorities’ violations of worldwide humanitarian and human rights legislation towards Palestinians. This summit, a response to the landmark July 2024 advisory opinion by the Worldwide Court docket of Justice (ICJ) on Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territory, is a continuation of a high-level assembly in July.
That ICJ advisory opinion decided that Israel’s decades-long occupation is illegal, breaches Palestinians’ proper to self-determination, and is marked by critical abuses, together with apartheid. On the September 22 convention, France, the UK, Australia, Canada, and others have mentioned they’d acknowledge a Palestinian state.
Nonetheless, these declarations danger being empty gestures until states decide to concrete actions to cease Israel’s extermination of Palestinians and enlargement of illegal settlements.
Governments ought to droop arms transfers to Israel, ban commerce with unlawful settlements, and impose focused sanctions on Israeli officers chargeable for ongoing crimes towards Palestinians, together with crimes towards humanity and acts of genocide, Human Rights Watch mentioned. States also needs to press Hamas and Palestinian armed teams to launch all civilian hostages.
The UN is within the throes of an existential monetary disaster, largely as a result of United States’ refusal to pay its assessed contributions – which international locations are obligated to pay – and its cancellation of just about all US voluntary funding for myriad UN companies and our bodies.
That is undermining UN humanitarian work, in addition to human rights investigations in Ukraine, Russia, Sudan, Syria, Israel/Palestine, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Myanmar, North Korea, and elsewhere.
The US isn’t alone in defaulting on its monetary obligations to the UN. China, the UN’s second greatest contributor, has been delaying its funds to the group’s common finances and peacekeeping operations. Many different governments are additionally in arrears.
Rich governments within the European Union, UK, Germany, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden, and others have adopted the US determination to intestine its overseas support packages by additional decreasing their very own overseas support budgets, exacerbating the UN’s monetary troubles.
Governments that care about human rights ought to pay their assessed contributions in full and on time and enhance voluntary contributions to the UN, prioritizing packages that shield human rights and save lives.
In 2023, the US contributed practically $13 billion in assessed and voluntary contributions to the UN. That determine has dropped to almost zero this yr after Trump ordered a “assessment” of US contributions to the UN. It stays unclear if, when, and to what extent the US may resume UN funding.
The UN management ought to search methods to cut back prices whereas avoiding across-the-board cuts that might disproportionately affect human rights work, which is already chronically underfunded. Because the UN management presses forward with a package deal of cost-cutting proposals as a part of its “UN80” initiative, it ought to guarantee that unbiased investigations of human rights abuses have the required sources to proceed.
“UN monitoring and investigations can deter abusive governments from committing atrocities towards civilians,” mentioned Borello. “Highly effective governments looking for to undermine the UN’s human rights and humanitarian packages ought to be condemned, not emulated. The lives of hundreds of thousands of individuals all over the world depend upon it.”
Leaders ought to press for significant motion to deal with dire crises in Sudan and Haiti. In Sudan, civilians are going through famine, sexual violence, and different atrocities. In Haiti, prison teams are increasing their management, escalating killings and sexual violence, together with gang rape, forcing hundreds of thousands into displacement and going through acute meals insecurity.
In the meantime, UN Secretary-Basic Antonio Guterres has declined to endorse calls from human rights defenders and member states to deploy bodily safety missions to Sudan and Haiti.
On February 6, Trump issued an government order that authorizes asset freezes and entry bans on ICC officers and others supporting the court docket’s work. The US authorities has to this point imposed sanctions on the court docket’s prosecutor, his two deputies, six judges, the UN particular rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Francesca Albanese, in addition to three main Palestinian civil society organizations.
These sanctions are a blatant assault on the rule of legislation and the worldwide justice system. They purpose primarily to thwart the ICC’s ongoing Palestine investigation, together with the court docket’s pending arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Protection Minister Yoav Gallant for crimes towards humanity and conflict crimes in Gaza.
UN member states ought to affirm their assist for the ICC’s international mandate and civil society’s important work, and name on the US authorities to cancel the sanctions program. Member states also needs to decide to concrete steps to guard the court docket from these sanctions, together with by way of laws just like the EU Blocking Statute, which goals to defend European corporations from the consequences of extraterritorial sanctions.
Member states ought to additional decide to worldwide justice by implementing the entire ICJ’s advisory opinions, together with the court docket’s July opinion calling local weather change an existential menace to the planet and arguing that states’ failure to guard the local weather triggers authorized penalties.
Delegates ought to urge member states to press forward with negotiations on a global treaty to stop and punish crimes towards humanity. The treaty will fill a spot in worldwide legislation that contributes to impunity for egregious acts of homicide, torture, enforced disappearance, sexual violence, and persecution, amongst others, inflicted on civilians all over the world.
Horrific, systematic abuses the Taliban have continued committing towards ladies and women in Afghanistan since retaking energy in 2021 exemplify why gender apartheid as against the law towards humanity ought to be included in any eventual treaty on crimes towards humanity, Human Rights Watch mentioned.
“The UN and worldwide human rights system are being put to the check,” mentioned Borello. “To be on the proper facet of historical past, it’s essential to push again towards highly effective governments making an attempt to undermine worldwide norms and demolish avenues for accountability.”
https://www.hrw.org/information/2025/09/17/un-world-leaders-should-commit-to-human-rights-international-justice
https://www.hrw.org/matter/united-nations
https://www.hrw.org/middle-east/north-africa/israel/palestine
IPS UN Bureau
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