Amman, Feb 23 (Petra) - United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that human rights are being violated across the world, pointing to the immense suffering of civilians as a result of wars in Sudan, the Gaza Strip and Ukraine.

According to the UN News website, Guterres said in remarks at the opening of a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva that human rights are facing a "full-fledged assault around the world," noting that "the law of the strongest is prevailing over the rule of law." He said the assault "is not coming from the shadows, nor is it sudden. It is happening in plain sight and is often led by those who hold the greatest power." Guterres referred to "the blatant violations of human rights, human dignity and international law in the occupied Palestinian territory," stating that the current trajectory in the occupied Palestinian territory is starkly clear and has a defined objective, namely undermining the two-state solution, but that the international community cannot allow that to happen.

He added that human rights are being curtailed around the world deliberately and strategically, sometimes even boasted about. "We are living in a world where collective suffering is justified while people are used as bargaining chips, and international law is treated as a mere nuisance," he said, warning that "when human rights collapse, everything collapses with them." //Petra// AF