Brussels: The UN human rights chief has warned of the dangerous rise of the “rhetoric of fascism” in Europe.
Speaking in Geneva on Friday, ahead of Human Rights Day, Prince Zeid bin Ra’ad Zeid al-Hussein said that 2016 has been a disastrous year for human rights across the world. He said human rights were at a risk of unravelling due to “unprecedented pressure.”
“2016 has been a disastrous year for human rights across the globe,” Mr Hussein said. “If the growing erosion of the carefully constructed system of human rights and rule of law continues to gather momentum, ultimately everyone will suffer,” the UN’s human rights chief added.
Populist sentiments have been gaining momentum in the West this year with UK voting to leave the European union and Donald Trump winning the US presidential elections. In US, there has been a rise in the number of hate crimes after Mr Trump’s surprise victory.
Mr Hussein warned that hate speech and fascist rhetoric was on the rise across the West. “In some parts of Europe, and in the United States, anti-foreigner rhetoric full of unbridled vitriol and hatred, is proliferating to a frightening degree, and is increasingly unchallenged.”
The rhetoric of fascism, he said, was no longer confined to a “secret underworld of fascists, meeting in ill-lit clubs or on the ‘Deep Net.’ It is becoming part of normal daily discourse,” he said.
Mr. Hussein warned that many leaders were failing to understand and deal with with these complex social and economic issues. And as a result, “people are turning in desperation to the siren voices exploiting fears, sowing disinformation and division, and making alluring promises they cannot fulfil,” he added, referring to populist forces.
He also highlighted the refugee crisis unleashed by the Syrian conflict and extremist movements.
