The United Nations Office at Geneva
Multimedia Newsroom
Edited News | OHCHR
End of High-Level Event Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the declaration of Human Rights
More than 16 Heads of State and Government were in Geneva on Tuesday for the culmination of a major meeting on human rights.
The two-day event commemorated the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Civil society representatives, human rights defenders and youth leaders were also among some 2,200 people taking part in Geneva, and also at connected events in Bangkok, Nairobi and Panama.
Opening Tuesday’s programme, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stressed the importance of putting a renewed focus on human rights.
“This is a pivotal day. We are here to rebuild a foundation of hope. Hope that we need now, perhaps more than ever, at this sombre moment in history. Disorder and division. Complex and bitter geopolitics. Deepening inequalities. And fear,” said Türk.
“Unbearably, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel – yet again; as well as in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and far too many other places, conflict, intractable and brutal, is inflicting terrible suffering on civilians, without remorse,” he stressed.
The many crises in the world stem from the failure to uphold human rights.
During the two-day meeting, communities from across the world called urgently for change, proposed transformative ideas and made commitments.
There were some 286 pledges announced by States on a wide range of human rights issues.
These included advancing women’s rights and children’s rights, tangible commitments on climate change, empowering people with disabilities, and ens to ensuring legislative reforms that promise lasting impact on people’s lives.
Four key discussions took place on Tuesday. On peace and security. Digital transformation. Economics and development. Climate change and the environment. And how to make human rights central to all policy-making and action.
Closing the event, the High Commissioner highlighted how this work will continue. The UN Human Rights Office will draw on rich insights and practical recommendations from the wide-reaching conversations throughout this HR75 initiative year to inform a Vision for Human Rights for the next 25 years.
“We must respond to what we have heard the many voices - from every region, every generation – which are demanding hope and change now. We are writing a new narrative for human rights - as the driver of an ambitious agenda of change that has to meet the biggest challenges of our time, the one’s we face now but also the one’s in the future,” Türk said.
There should be no doubt that there is a strong global constituency for rights, he added.
“We remain all of us each other’s best hope.”
Ends
For more information and media requests, please contact:
In Geneva
Ravina Shamdasani - + 41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org or
Liz Throssell + 41 22 917 9296 / elizabeth.throssell@un.org or
Jeremy Laurence + +41 22 917 9383 / jeremy.laurence@un.org or
Marta Hurtado - + 41 22 917 9466 / marta.hurtadogomez@un.org
Tag and share
Twitter @UNHumanRights
Facebook unitednationshumanrights
Instagram @unitednationshumanrights
STORY: End of High-Level Event Commemorating the 75th Anniversary of the declaration of Human Rights
TRT: 03:36
SOURCE: OHCHR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: English/NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 12 December 2023 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exteriors shots: Various Palais des Nations arrival shots
- Interior shot: Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif greeting Polish President Andrzej Duda
- Interior shot: Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif greeting President of Senegal Macky Sall
- Interior shot: Outside Room 20 in the Palais des Nations participants arriving
- Various shots: Inside room 20 participants
- Various shots: Inside room 20 President of the Swiss Confederation Alain Berset
- Wide shot: Prime Minister of Thailand Srettha Thavisin addressing room 20 remotely
- Various shots: Inside room 20 participants
- Soundbite (English)— Volker Türk, High Commissioner for UN Human Rights: “This is a pivotal day. We are here to rebuild a foundation of hope. Hope that we need now, perhaps more than ever, at this sombre moment in history. Disorder and division. Complex and bitter geopolitics. Deepening inequalities. And fear. ”
- Cutaways: room 20
- Soundbite (English)— Volker Türk, High Commissioner for UN Human Rights: “ Unbearably, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel – yet again; as well as in Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and far too many other places, conflict, intractable and brutal, is inflicting terrible suffering on civilians, without remorse. ”
- Cutaways: room 20
- Various shots: Inside room 20 participants
- Various shots: Vice President of Colombia Francia marquez Mina speaking on the future of Human rights
- Various shots: Polish President Andrzej Duda speaking on the future of Human rights
- Cutaways: room 20
- Soundbite (English)— Volker Türk, High Commissioner for UN Human Rights: “ We must respond to what we have heard the many voices - from every region, every generation – which are demanding hope and change now.
- Cutaways: room 20
- Soundbite (English)— Volker Türk, High Commissioner for UN Human Rights: “ We are writing a new narrative for human rights - as the driver of an ambitious agenda of change that has to meet the biggest challenges of our time, the one’s we face now but also the one’s in the future.”
- Cutaways: room 20
- Soundbite (English)— Volker Türk, High Commissioner for UN Human Rights: ““We remain all of us each other’s best hope.”
- Cutaways: room 20
Similar Stories
1
1
1
Edited News | WMO
New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades in 2025 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.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WMO
As world’s water reserves change, countries must prepare for a new reality: WMO
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
- Past seven years have seen abnorfmal river flows
- Water storage on Earth’s land surface has decreased in past decade
- Widespread glacier loss across all regions for fourth consecutive year
- 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.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
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
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
The deadly Ebola virus outbreak in DR Congo continues to spread across the vast country despite some success in containing it, aid officials said on Tuesday, in a renewed call for international support to help responders on the ground.
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WFP
‘Super El Niño’ and converging crises worsen hunger in South Sudan and across the region - WFP
South Sudan’s hunger crisis is becoming increasingly catastrophic as violence, extreme weather and dwindling aid leave millions without enough food, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UN WOMEN
In war-torn Gaza, a growing number of women-headed households face “impossible decisions” every day, amid ongoing Israeli airstrikes and still-scarce resources, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk made the following remarks to the Enhanced Interactive Dialogue on the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar at the 63rd Human Rights Council.
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk today delivered an update on the global human rights situation to the 63rdsession of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Repeated attacks on humanitarian warehouses put vital medical aid at risk in Ukraine - WHO
A new airstrike overnight damaged one of the main warehouses used by the UN health agency to store humanitarian medical supplies in the Kyiv region, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. This is the third attack to affect a WHO-used storage in the last three months.
2
2
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | WMO
Powerful El Niño heightens extreme-weather risks through 2027, as countries brace for impact - WMO
Fuelled by extraordinarily warm waters across the tropical Pacific Ocean, the El Niño climate pattern is expected to intensify in the coming months. Forecasters are almost certain that it will persist through February next year, with unusually warm conditions expected across the globe.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , IFRC , UN WOMEN , WHO
Nepal flood deaths near 1,000 as those spared struggle to survive – UN humanitarians
With the death toll in Nepal’s catastrophic flash floods inching towards 1,000, rescue workers are facing harsh conditions while survivors lack access to food, safe water and health care, humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNDRR , IFRC , WHO
Nepal: Flooding disaster “not over” as humanitarians work around the clock
While search and rescue efforts continued Friday following flash floods and mudslides in northern Nepal, UN humanitarians are taking stock of the devastation amid concerns over more flooding to come.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNIFIL
Damaged roads, disrupted services and renewed military activity are putting civilians at risk in south Lebanon, UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) warns.
The UN peacekeeping mission is urging restraint and renewed political engagement to prevent further escalation.