The director of the New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Craig Mokhiber, has resigned from his post, citing the ongoing genocide of Palestinian civilians in Gaza during Israeli bombardment. Mokhiber accused the UN of failing to fulfill its duty to prevent this atrocity, and he pointed fingers at the United States, the United Kingdom, and many European nations, labeling them “wholly complicit in the horrific assault.”
In a letter dated October 28, Mokhiber wrote to the UN High Commissioner in Geneva, Volker Turk, stating that it would be his final communication in his role in New York. He cited the ongoing conflict in Gaza as a “genocide unfolding before our eyes” and criticized the UN for its apparent inability to stop it.
Mokhiber drew parallels with past failures of the UN to prevent genocides, including those against the Tutsis in Rwanda, Muslims in Bosnia, the Yazidi in Iraqi Kurdistan, and the Rohingya in Myanmar. He lamented, “High Commissioner, we are failing again,” and described the current violence against Palestinian civilians as a “textbook case of genocide.”
Furthermore, Mokhiber accused the United States, the United Kingdom, and a significant portion of Europe of not only failing to meet their treaty obligations under the Geneva Conventions but also providing material support and diplomatic cover for Israel’s actions in Gaza.
In his letter, Mokhiber advocated for the establishment of a “single, democratic secular state in all of historic Palestine” with equal rights for Christians, Muslims, and Jews. He called for the dismantling of what he characterized as a “deeply racist, settler-colonial project” and the end of apartheid across the region.
Craig Mokhiber, a lawyer specializing in international human rights law, has been with the UN since 1992, serving in various influential roles throughout his career. He led the High Commissioner’s work on devising a human rights-based approach to development and served as a senior human rights adviser in Palestine, Afghanistan, and Sudan. Notably, he lived in Gaza during the 1990s.
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