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UN Human Rights officer resigns citing "ongoing genocide”
Characterizing the situation as a textbook case of genocide, Turk condemned the systematic persecution of the Palestinian people
Craig Mokhiber / UN SDGs
Craig Mokhiber, a Human Rights official at the United Nations, tendered his resignation pointing to genocide in Palestine. In a letter to Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in New York, Mokhiber stated that the inability to stop the violence was the primary reason for his departure.
Turk, who spent decades investigating human rights violations in Palestine, including living in Gaza as a UN human rights advisor in the 1990s, emphasized the crisis's deeply personal nature. Several governments, including the United States and the United Kingdom, were complicit in the massacre of Palestinian civilians, he said, lamenting the international community's inaction.
Mokhiber expressed his helplessness in the situation, saying, “When the dust settled on the horrors that had been perpetrated against defenseless civilian populations, it became painfully clear that we had failed in our duty to meet the imperatives of prevention of mass atrocites, of protection of the vulnerable, and of accountability for perpetrators.”
Characterizing the situation as a textbook case of genocide, Turk condemned the systematic persecution of the Palestinian people, saying, “The European, ethno-nationalist, settler colonial project in Palestine has entered its final phase, toward the expedited destruction of the last remnants of indigenous Palestinian life in Palestine. ”
Mokhiber highlighted a historical irony, drawing parallels between the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the Nakba's devastating impact on the Palestinian people. Being adopted the same year as that, even the 75th Anniversary of the UDHR this year was during an appalling genocide.
Furthermore, he emphasized the immediate need for a ceasefire, an end to the Gaza siege, documentation of the genocidal assault, and the provision of humanitarian aid to Palestinians. He stressed the importance of supporting traumatized colleagues and families and advocated for a principled approach in the UN's political offices.
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