UN secretary general António Guterres speaking during the high-level segment of the 58th session of the Human Rights Council at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Monday, February 24, 2025. (Keystone/Til Buergy)

🫁UN chief says human rights are being suffocated by autocrats and warmongers. Speaking at the opening of the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Monday, António Guterres said human rights were one by one being extinguished by those who see them as a barrier to power and profit.

🗣Switzerland concerned over US disengagement from UN human rights body. Foreign minister Ignazio Cassis, also speaking at the council, voiced his concerns about international political tensions, a shrinking democratic space and authoritarianism affecting more than half of the planet.

🇨🇭Switzerland to chair Human Rights Council at worst possible time. Budget cuts, the crisis of the multilateral system and the progressive silencing of civil society pose a serious threat to the country which is the depository of the Geneva Conventions.

🏛️Russian court upholds French researcher's jail sentence for 'espionage'. Laurent Vinatier, who worked as an adviser for the Geneva Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, was sentenced to three years in prison on espionage charges, which he denies. He is one of many Westerners whose detentions since the beginning of the Ukraine invasion have been described by the West as politically motivated.

🌀Pierre Hazan: 'We've entered a new pattern of international relations – infinitely fluid, infinitely dangerous'. For a month now, the world has been experiencing the shocks of the new American administration and discovering the chaos that is emerging. How did we get to this situation and where will it lead? Mediation specialist Pierre Hazan shares his thoughts.