UN high commissioner for human rights Volker Türk addresses the Human Rights Council as the UN body opens its 58th session in Geneva on 24 February 2025. (Keystone/Til Buergy)

↩️UN rights chief laments ‘shift in direction’ in United States. Volker Türk expressed concern about a change in Washington’s human rights policies both at home and abroad and told the Human Rights Council that “divisive rhetoric” was stoking fear among many.

🇮🇱Israel criticises Swiss decision to host Middle East conference in Geneva on Friday. The UN General Assembly passed a resolution last year requesting Switzerland to convene the contracting parties to the Geneva Conventions to discuss humanitarian law in the occupied Palestinian territories.

☠️Switzerland ‘deeply concerned’ by Trump’s death penalty order. Tim Enderlin, head of the Swiss foreign ministry’s peace and human rights division, told the Human Rights Council that the death penalty “runs counter to human rights”.

⛑️Israel criticised after it bars Gaza aid to pressure Hamas to accept a new ceasefire proposal. UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher called the move “alarming”, while the International Committee of the Red Cross recalled that the ceasefire had saved countless lives.

🪓‘This will cost lives’: cuts to UK aid budget condemned as ‘betrayal’ by international development groups. The decision prompted the resignation of development minister Anneliese Dodds on Friday and a warning from aid groups of the dire consequences for poorer countries.