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Human Rights 75 – Welcome statement by Volker Türk - 11 December 2023
STORY: High-Level Event Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by Volker Türk
TRT: 03:04
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: English/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 11 December 2023 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exteriors shots: Palais des Nation with HR75 banners
- Various shots: Outside Room 20 in the Palais des Nations participants arriving
- Various shots: Inside room 20 participants
- Soundbite (English)— Volker Türk, High Commissioner for UN Human Rights: “In the ashes of global warfare, it brought hope. To put an end to cycles of bloodshed, it promised justice. It promised development that would be secure, equitable; inclusive. It set out the path to peace.”
- Cutaways: room 20
- Soundbite (English)— Volker Türk, High Commissioner for UN Human Rights: “But alongside the progress that has transformed many of our societies, there have also been numerous failures to uphold human rights over the past 75 years. We live among many such failures today – with the turmoil and suffering that they produce.”
- Cutaways: room 20
- Soundbite (English)— Volker Türk, High Commissioner for UN Human Rights: “War: my thoughts go to the millions of people suffering unbearably in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, notably in Gaza, and Israel; in Sudan; Ukraine; Myanmar; and so many other places. Famine. Oppressive and hateful discrimination. Repression and persecution. Threats to human rights generated by climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss.”
- Cutaways: room 20
- Soundbite (English)— Volker Türk, High Commissioner for UN Human Rights: ““It was drawn up at a time of horror, after the most monstrous mass killing the world has ever known, in the form of the Holocaust – and with the knowledge that total destruction was growing closer. It has demonstrated its power and efficacy over decades. It bridges every sector of Government action and field of human endeavour.”
- Cutaways: room 20
- Soundbite (English)— Volker Türk, High Commissioner for UN Human Rights: “At a time of so little solidarity, and so much divisive and short-sighted vision, I view it as a call to overcome polarisation. A call to work, with courage and principles, together, to resolve the huge challenges that we face.”
- Cutaways: room 20
- Soundbite (English)— Volker Türk, High Commissioner for UN Human Rights: “A call to hark back to the spirit that led every Member State to adopt the Universal Declaration, and to base local, national and global decisions, across all areas of policy, on the intrinsic, and equal, value of every human life”
- Cutaways: room 20
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New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
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- Asia and Africa are regions most affected by water-related disasters
- Water data availability has improved, but gaps remain in hard-hit areas
Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
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Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
“All 19 glacier regions around the globe lost ice; in Central Asia, Iceland, the Russian Arctic and western Canada and the United States, it was among the three worst years on record,” said Wayne Jenkinson, WMO’s Director of Hydrology and Cryosphere.
Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
“Some glacier loss is inevitable, but total loss of glaciers is not yet inevitable,” she said, pointing to emissions reductions as central to limiting future losses.
Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
ends
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