World faces most intense competition for power since World War II: UN

The world faces the most intense competition for power and resources since World War Two amid widespread rights violations in conflicts in Sudan, Gaza, Myanmar and Ukraine, the United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said on Monday.

“A fierce competition for power, control and resources is playing out on the world stage at a rate and intensity unseen for the past 80 years,” said the U.N’s high commissioner for the office of human rights at the opening of the Human Rights Council.

U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres also spoke on the matter at the Council, saying: “The rule of law is being outmuscled by the rule of force.” Human rights are being pushed back deliberately, Guterres said, urging member states not to view international human rights as a menu to pick from.

Guterres strongly defended the U.N. human rights system which is in “survival mode” because of funding cuts, attacks on some of its experts and the United States’ withdrawal from one of its key universal rights accountability mechanisms.”Humanitarian needs are exploding while funding collapses,” he said.

The U.N. human rights office, like other parts of the organization, faces a budget crunch following the decision to cut funding by the United States — the top donor to the U.N. — as well as other governments.

Washington in February paid about $160 million of the more than $4 billion it owes to the U.N., a United Nations spokesperson said on Thursday.