Migrants, women & LGBT community suffer most from populist rhetoric - UN human rights chief
Volker Türk has been in his position since October 2022.
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00:00 The United Nations Human Rights Chief says he's worried about an increasing rise in populism
00:07 and anti-freedom or rights movements in the world, including in Europe.
00:12 In an interview with Euronews in Brussels, Volker Turk said that the main victims of
00:16 this concerning trend are refugees, women and the LGBTQI community.
00:22 We need to fight against bigotry and populism because all of it is ultimately about who
00:28 we are, embracing human diversity and the richness of who we are, accepting who we are.
00:36 No matter who we love and how we want to engage in our lives, I think we need to respect this.
00:42 This was the biggest promise from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
00:47 And we need to educate all those who want to push us back into an era that is long gone
00:53 by.
00:54 I wanted to ask you if you think that the United Kingdom migration bill that has just
00:59 been passed, somehow to avoid that asylum seekers present their demands in the UK territory,
01:08 is a blunted disregard of humanitarian law?
01:10 Well, it's clear that the UK illegal migration bill is in violation of both international
01:17 refugee law as well as international human rights law.
01:21 Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights talks about the right to seek
01:26 and to enjoy asylum from persecution.
01:30 So you have a right to seek and enjoy asylum from persecution.
01:34 But if that law bars that right, it is a tragedy.
01:39 What do you think of the recent agreement between the European Union and a country such
01:43 as Tunisia, which of course also was mentioned by United Nations agencies as a country where
01:51 human rights violations occur?
01:53 We need to understand why people are moving.
01:55 They are moving because of human rights violations in their own countries.
02:00 Sometimes they end up in horrible situations, in Libya for example, or in Tunisia, where
02:06 they are pushed back or where it's very difficult for them to survive.
02:10 I mean, Libya has these horrific detention centers for migrants and asylum seekers.
02:16 So the big thing and the big ask is, can we not find alternatives to these horribly dangerous
02:22 routes that migrants and asylum seekers often have to take?
02:26 Mr High Commissioner, thank you very much for being with us.
02:30 Thank you very much.
02:30 [Whoosh]