U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, speaks during a press conference on Aug. 9, 2023. The U.N. human rights chief called on Monday for an "urgent reversal" of military takeovers and return to civilian rule in countries in Africa where coups have driven out elected leaders in recent years as he assailed a multitude of crises across the globe.
In his catch-all address at the Human Rights Council, Turk laid out a litany of concerns from "extreme gang violence" in Haiti and "nonchalance" about the deaths of 2,300 migrants in the Mediterranean this year, to the 1.2 billion people -- half of them children -- who now live in acute poverty across the world.
Among other things, Turk encouraged countries to enable women to choose to terminate pregnancy safely and cautioned that expedited deportations and expulsions of migrants and people seeking protection along the U.S.-Mexico border raised "serious issues."