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The new U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Tuerk says he will use his position to advocate for the rights of people around the world, especially for the most vulnerable, powerless and repressed.

Tuerk said he has been on a learning curve since he assumed his post September 8, and much of what he has seen he does not like. He said he is taking up his functions at a time when the world is very divided and riven with political tensions.

Tuerk said he worries about the deepening politicization and polarization in the world. He adds that the artificial dichotomy between, on the one hand, civil and political rights, and on the other, social, economic and cultural rights is very harmful to people.

He said he worries about the decline of multilateralism as the world is emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and is absorbing the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“When the world needs to be most united, we see that the world retracts in groupthink and in block mentality,” Tuerk said. “And, unfortunately, human rights are thrown into the vortex of these dynamics and has become a battlefield, which we cannot afford, and human beings cannot afford.”

And yet, he said, human rights violations continue unabated, often erupting into violence when people’s grievances are not addressed. In just the last two weeks, he said, protest movements have been violently repressed in several countries, including Iran, Sudan, South Sudan and Chad.

Tuerk said working to overcome these grievances by addressing the reasons behind them is one of the big issues facing him as high commissioner. He said he believes very much in advocacy, in pushing boundaries to advance the rights of people everywhere in the world.

“I will speak out when we feel that our voice can make a difference or when it is needed to amplify, especially the voices of victims and/or to sound the alarm bell,” he said. “I mean, that is very clear. That is the role of the high commissioner, and that is an important role.”

Tuerk said he will use all the tools at his disposal to advance human rights globally and has many available after working 30 years for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, lastly as assistant high commissioner for protection.

He said 30 years of living and breathing human rights in action in the defense of the most vulnerable people has prepared him well for the challenges ahead.
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Ahead of the COP27 climate talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh next week, there are concerns that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has reversed progress on tackling climate change. But as Henry Ridgwell reports, some say the war could have a positive impact in the longer term
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The Dutch government on Tuesday ordered China to immediately close “police stations” in the Netherlands, which reports say were used to harass dissidents.

The police posts in Amsterdam and Rotterdam purported to offer diplomatic assistance but they had not been declared to the Netherlands government, Dutch media reported last month.

The reports followed an investigation by Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders in September, which said China had set up 54 overseas police centers around the world, including the two in the Netherlands.

It also said there were three in Britain and three in Canada.

“Because no permission was sought from the Netherlands” for the stations, “the ministry informed the (Chinese) ambassador that the stations must close immediately,” Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Twitter.

He said the ministry had asked the ambassador for clarification on the stations and was investigating the posts’ activities.

The two “police stations” set up since 2018 were used to silence China’s political opponents, broadcaster RTL and investigative website Follow the Money said, quoting a Chinese dissident living in the Netherlands.

According to Safeguard Defenders, the police stations have been used by Chinese police to carry out policing operations on foreign soil, and pressure Chinese nationals to return home to face criminal charges.

China’s foreign ministry said the Dutch reports were “completely false” and the “service stations” were meant to help overseas citizens do things such as renew driver’s licenses.

The first Chinese office was opened in June 2018 in Amsterdam by the Lishui region police force and is headed by two men who started their careers in the Chinese police force before moving to the Netherlands, RTL said.

Police from the Chinese city of Fuzhou opened a second office earlier this year in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam, run by a former soldier, according to the broadcaster.

The Dutch foreign ministry said there were “regular signals” from the Dutch Chinese community about receiving “intimidation and threats,” and that it was setting up a hotline.

Canadian federal police said last week they were investigating reports of three stations in the Toronto area.
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In the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the positions held by Russian forces, an artillery unit waits for the signal.

“Ready!” The four soldiers duck and put their hands over their ears. “Fire!”

The shell shoots out of the cannon toward the Russian forces in a burst of flames and smoke.

“According to the coordinates we received, the target is infantry,” says Oleksandr, 37, between two radioed orders.

Oleksandr commands this small group of artillerymen, part of the Ukrainian army’s 58th motorized infantry brigade.

About 30 seconds later, the 50 kilo (110-pound) “fragmentation” shell, pinched from the Russians after their retreat from a nearby town, will explode above the position held by Moscow’s troops, showering them with its payload.

A Ukrainian drone supports the operation “in real time,” monitoring the effectiveness of the strike from the old Soviet D-20 cannon in order to better calibrate the next one.

Bakhmut, in the Donbas, has been the scene of active fighting for the past four months. Since the start of the Russian invasion in February, it is said to be one of the longest and most lethal battlefields for both sides, though there is no estimate of the exact losses.

The front here has almost not budged since the beginning of October, despite a few small gains made by one or other of the opposing forces, only to soon be lost again.

On the Russian side, Moscow is pushing hard, supported by mercenaries from the paramilitary Wagner group, sent to the frontlines and dubbed “disposable soldiers” by the Ukrainians.

For their part, the Ukrainians are holding their lines as they focus on a counteroffensive in the south, while trying to limit losses in the war of attrition being waged by the Russians.

“As the military proverb goes: the sweat of the artillery spares the blood of the infantry,” says Oleksandr, who after another lethal attack on the enemy hopes to have saved the lives of some of his comrades.

The artillery unit now has a few minutes to move before the Russian riposte. In the meantime, they open a packet of sunflower seeds and share them to celebrate the strike.

‘The limousine’

Just five kilometers from the Russian position in the city neighborhoods devastated by the war, the basement of an anonymous-looking building shelters the brigade’s command post and garrison.

It is “the Monday rotation” and 15 or so new soldiers have just arrived, making their way through the underground corridors by the light on their mobile phones.

The infantry wear serious expressions. The quagmire of Bakhmut has a bad reputation.

The 58th, whose motto is “together to victory,” fought the first part of the war on the southern Donbas front, in Pisky, before being redeployed to Bakhmut.

In the smoke-filled room, lit by candlelight when the generator is not working, a soldier sits on a chair filling ammunition, another fetches a barrel of borscht soup, while one more takes a nap in his chair, still wearing his gear.

What awaits them? “The less we know about it, the better,” says a 25-year-old volunteer soldier with the nom-de-guerre “Bullet.”

Above ground, the morning’s bombardment is intensifying. From here, the approach toward the frontline will be by armored vehicle.

Outside, “the limousine” has arrived.

In the BMP-1, a Soviet-era vehicle with somewhat outmoded armor and sometimes referred to as “the tomb of our brothers,” a mix of superstition and good sense prompts the soldiers to sit on the side of the vehicle not exposed to the Russian positions.

The tracks of the BMP-1 cross the river, headed to the northeast sector of Bakhmut, where the 58th brigade has the guard.

‘Total war’

One-and-a-half kilometers from the line of contact, the last covered Ukrainian position in the northeast of Bakhmut sits in an old industrial park.

In this hideout, the last before the “zero line,” five soldiers are tasked daily with high-risk patrols to supply the line of contact with munitions and provide logistical support, as well as to evacuate the injured or dead. AFP is not authorized to go any further than here.

“We go out in two (armored) vehicles. One covers the other,” says “Demon,” 29, his hair plastered to his head as he takes off his helmet.

All the 58th’s actions are done under Russian fire and are covered by RPG rocket-launchers aimed at the enemy.

“Our mission is to leave as quickly as possible and without losing anyone,” Demon says.

“Petrokha,” their sergeant, smokes a cigarette by the entrance to the hangar, keeping one eye on the sky in case any Russian drones might be lurking.

“It’s total war,” he says. “Total because we’re using everything. Artillery, aviation and …” he says before his voice trails off as he gets to the last item: his men.

“(The Russians) are pouring in human meat, men that they no longer think of as men but as munitions,” he says. “It’s 70 years since we’ve seen anything like it.”
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After fleeing Ukraine following Russia’s invasion, two women found find themselves in an unlikely shelter – Nu Boyana Film Studios in Sofia, Bulgaria. Tatiana Vorozhko has the story. VOA footage by Svitlana Koval. Video editing – Kostiantyn Golubchyk.
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Greek authorities have launched a major search and rescue operation for dozens of migrants missing after a boat they were traveling on from Turkey overturned and sank in rough weather overnight between the islands of Evia and Andros.

The coast guard said Tuesday that nine people, all men, had been found on an uninhabited rocky islet in the Kafirea Straits between the two islands, which lie east of the Greek capital. The survivors, who were picked up by a coast guard patrol boat, told authorities there had been a total of about 68 people on board the sailing boat when it sank, and that they had initially set sail from Izmir on the Turkish coast.

Authorities were initially alerted by a distress call in the early hours of Tuesday from passengers saying the boat they were on was in trouble, but they did not provide a location. Weather in the area was particularly rough, with gale force winds. The coast guard said a helicopter, a coast guard patrol boat and two nearby ships were participating in the search and rescue operation.

A separate search and rescue operation was also ongoing since Monday off the coast of the eastern Aegean island of Samos for eight people reported missing after an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants overturned. Four survivors were rescued Monday from that incident. A coast guard aircraft and patrol boat, two nearby ships and a vessel from the European border patrol agency Frontex were participating in the search, authorities said.

Thousands of people fleeing conflict and poverty in Africa, Asia and the Middle East attempt to enter the European Union through Greece each year. Most make the short but often perilous crossing from the Turkish coast to nearby Greek islands in inflatable dinghies. Others opt to attempt to circumvent Greece in overcrowded sailboats and yachts heading straight to Italy.

Earlier this month, at least 27 people drowned in two separate incidents. In one, 18 people died when a boat that had set sail from Turkey sank off the eastern Aegean island of Lesbos, while in the other, a yacht carrying about 100 people sank in a gale, killing at least nine and leaving six missing.
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Ukrainian officials called for Russia to be isolated from international bodies after Russian forces carried out attacks on infrastructure targets in multiple Ukrainian cities.

Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said Tuesday Russia should be expelled from the G-20 group of nations and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invitation to this month’s G-20 summit in Indonesia should be revoked.

“Putin publicly acknowledged ordering missile strikes on Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure,” Nikolenko tweeted. “With his hands stained in blood, he must not be allowed to sit at the table with world leaders.”

In his nightly address Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia “should have no place” on the U.N. Security Council.

“Terror against Ukrainian energy facilities, moreover against the background of Russia’s attempts to exacerbate the global food crisis, clearly indicates that Russia will continue to oppose itself to the entire international community,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine’s army said Russia’s attacks Monday included more than 50 cruise missiles. The strikes cut off water and electricity to much of Kyiv, but Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Tuesday those services had been restored.

Putin said Monday’s attacks were in response to Kyiv allegedly carrying out drone attacks on Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

In response to a journalist who asked if the bombardment was an answer to the recent events on the Black Sea, Putin said, “Partly, yes. But it’s not all we could have done.”

Ukraine has not confirmed or denied attacking the Russian fleet, which Russia cited Saturday as its reason for suspending its participation in a U.N.-led grain initiative.

A senior U.S. military official said the United States is tracking the report of an alleged attack against Russian navy vessels in Sevastopol and said, “We do assess that there were explosions there.”

Putin said Monday that Ukraine fired drones at Russia’s fleet through a zone that was meant to ensure the safety of ships carrying grain.

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council Monday that no ships involved with the U.N. grain deal were in the corridor when the alleged attack took place.

Russia announced Saturday it was suspending its participation in the U.N.-brokered initiative to allow grain exports from Ukraine.

Amir Abdulla, the U.N. coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative, is continuing talks with the governments involved in the program — Russia, Ukraine and Turkey — “in an effort to resume full participation,” the U.N. said Tuesday.

The U.N. also said three vessels carrying 84,890 metric tons of grain and food products left Ukraine on Tuesday and were bound for Germany, Libya and Morocco.

VOA U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this story. Some information came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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October’s Turkish energy deal with Libya’s Government of National Accord is the latest flashpoint in growing tensions between Turkey and Greece. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, the effects of the rivalry are spreading in regions of Europe and the Mideast.
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Afghan special forces soldiers who fought alongside American troops and then fled to Iran after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal last year are now being recruited by the Russian military to fight in Ukraine, three former Afghan generals told The Associated Press.

They said the Russians want to attract thousands of the former elite Afghan commandos into a “foreign legion” with offers of steady, $1,500-a-month payments and promises of safe havens for themselves and their families so they can avoid deportation home to what many assume would be death at the hands of the Taliban.

“They don’t want to go fight — but they have no choice,” said one of the generals, Abdul Raof Arghandiwal, adding that the dozen or so commandos in Iran with whom he has texted fear deportation most. “They ask me, ‘Give me a solution. What should we do? If we go back to Afghanistan, the Taliban will kill us.'”

Arghandiwal said the recruiting is led by the Russian mercenary force Wagner Group. Another general, Hibatullah Alizai, the last Afghan army chief before the Taliban took over, said the effort is also being helped by a former Afghan special forces commander who lived in Russia and speaks the language.

The Russian recruitment follows months of warnings from U.S. soldiers who fought with Afghan special forces that the Taliban was intent on killing them and that they might join with U.S. enemies to stay alive or out of anger with their former ally.

A GOP congressional report in August specifically warned of the danger that the Afghan commandos — trained by U.S. Navy SEALs and Army Green Berets — could end up giving up information about U.S. tactics to the Islamic State group, Iran or Russia — or fight for them.

“We didn’t get these individuals out as we promised, and now it’s coming home to roost,” said Michael Mulroy, a retired CIA officer who served in Afghanistan, adding that the Afghan commandos are highly skilled, fierce fighters. “I don’t want to see them in any battlefield, frankly, but certainly not fighting the Ukrainians.”

Mulroy was skeptical, however, that Russians would be able to persuade many Afghan commandos to join because most he knew were driven by the desire to make democracy work in their country rather than being guns for hire.

AP was investigating the Afghan recruiting when details of the effort were first reported by Foreign Policy magazine last week based on unnamed Afghan military and security sources. The recruitment comes as Russian forces reel from Ukrainian military advances and Russian President Vladimir Putin pursues a sputtering mobilization effort, which has prompted nearly 200,000 Russian men to flee the country to escape service.

Russia’s Defense Ministry did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Yevgeny Prigozhin, who recently acknowledged being the founder of the Wagner Group, dismissed the idea of an ongoing effort to recruit former Afghan soldiers as “crazy nonsense.”

The U.S. Defense Department also didn’t reply to a request for comment, but a senior official suggested the recruiting is not surprising given that Wagner has been trying to sign up soldiers in several other countries.

It’s unclear how many Afghan special forces members who fled to Iran have been courted by the Russians, but one told the AP he is communicating through the WhatsApp chat service with about 400 other commandos who are considering offers.

He said many like him fear deportation and are angry at the U.S. for abandoning them.

“We thought they might create a special program for us, but no one even thought about us,” said the former commando, who requested anonymity because he fears for himself and his family. “They just left us all in the hands of the Taliban.”

The commando said his offer included Russian visas for himself as well as his three children and wife who are still in Afghanistan.

Others have been offered extensions of their visas in Iran. He said he is waiting to see what others in the WhatsApp groups decide but thinks many will take the deal.

An estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Afghan special forces fought with the Americans during the two-decade war, and only a few hundred senior officers were airlifted out when the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan. Since many of the Afghan commandos did not work directly for the U.S. military, they were not eligible for special U.S. visas.

“They were the ones who fought to the really last minute. And they never, never, never talked to the Taliban. They never negotiated,” former Afghan army chief Alizai said. “Leaving them behind is the biggest mistake.”
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The prices of wheat and corn jumped sharply in global trading Monday, after Russia’s announcement over the weekend that it could no longer “guarantee the safety” of civilian cargo ships in the Black Sea and would pull out of a deal that established a humanitarian maritime corridor there.

While shipments of grain from Ukrainian ports to the rest of the world resumed on Monday after a brief halt the previous day, experts are concerned that the breakdown of the deal could lead to future interruptions that will drive prices even higher.

The new uncertainty about grain shipments from Ukraine comes at a time when aid groups around the world, including the United Nations’ World Food Program (WFP), are warning of a massive global hunger crisis.

Threat of famine

Between 2019 and 2022, according to the WFP, the number of people suffering globally from “acute food insecurity” has more than doubled to 345 million. According to the agency, 50 million people are currently experiencing, or are on the brink of famine, the most severe assessment in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification used by international aid agencies.

“We’re deeply disappointed by the breakdown of the initiative,” Catherine Maldonado, the food security portfolio director for Mercy Corps, a U.S.-based aid organization, told VOA. “We are tracking the food price shocks that are starting to be seen. But we’re also tracking the continued livelihood and economic shocks, as well as the projections for food availability issues all throughout this year and next year because of the ongoing global food crisis.”

Restrictions on exports from Ukraine have not by themselves caused the current food crisis. However, Maldonado said, “the food price shocks that could ripple from this could have a global impact.”

Ukrainian exports choked

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which began in February, temporarily shut down shipments of wheat, corn and other agricultural commodities from that country, one of the world’s largest suppliers.

In talks brokered by Turkey in August, officials from Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations agreed to create a humanitarian shipping corridor that would allow the movement of civilian cargo vessels through the Black Sea and into the Mediterranean.

Under the agreement, ships moving to and from Ukraine and Russia were jointly inspected when they reached Turkish waters to ensure they were not carrying war materiel or other contraband.

The agreement, which had been in operation through this past weekend, allowed millions of tons of grain and other foodstuffs to leave Ukrainian ports between August and October.

Russia withdraws

On Saturday, Russia said it was suspending its participation in the program because of what it characterized as Ukrainian attacks on military and civilian vessels that were involved in maintaining the security of the humanitarian corridor.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the attacks on its ships had been launched from inside the humanitarian corridor and that as a result, Russia “cannot guarantee the safety of civilian dry cargo ships participating in the Black Sea Initiative and suspends its implementation from today for an indefinite period.”

On Sunday, the U.N.’s Black Sea Grain Initiative Joint Coordination Center (JCC), established to facilitate the agreement, said it remains in touch with all parties involved.

“The secretariat, in close cooperation with the Turkish delegation at the JCC, continues to engage all representatives to offer options on next steps regarding the JCC operations in accordance with the goals and provisions stated in the initiative,” the JCC said.

Russian officials, the JCC said, had agreed to “cooperate remotely on issues that require an immediate decision by the JCC.”

Ukraine responds

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Sunday accused Russia of acting in bad faith, posting on Twitter that Russian officials had already taken steps to reduce the pace of cargo ships being allowed through the humanitarian corridor.

“By suspending its participation in the grain deal on a false pretext of explosions 220 kilometers away from the grain corridor, Russia blocks 2 million tons of grain on 176 vessels already at sea — enough to feed over 7 million people,” Kuleba wrote.

“Russia has planned this well in advance. The current queue with grain has accumulated in the Black Sea since September, when Russia started deliberately delaying the functioning of the corridor and seeking to undermine the deal. Russia took the decision to resume its hunger games long ago and now tries to justify it,” Kuleba said.

Effects on food aid

International aid organizations were already hard pressed to meet the needs of hungry people around the world before Russia invaded Ukraine in February. For several months, the war completely stopped the shipment of wheat, corn and other staples from Ukraine, badly complicating the provision of aid.

The war in Ukraine not only reduced supply but also caused massive price spikes. For example, at one point in March, wheat prices had risen by 71% from pre-invasion levels. As of last week, prices had fallen but remained about 10% higher than at the beginning of the year. On Monday, wheat surged by another 5.9% compared to closing prices on Friday.

“It all works together to create a perfect storm, unfortunately, of lack of supply of food, of course, but also then rising costs of making sure people have that food,” Jordan Teague, interim director for policy analysis and coalition building at Bread for the World, told VOA.

Teague said this forces painful choices on humanitarian organizations, which already ration the food and cash assistance they provide to needy people and families around the world and are now faced with the need to reduce them.

“Families are getting less food or less money per month,” Teague said. “Sometimes, we’ve heard of the possibility of certain areas not receiving aid at all, in service of other areas that are worse off. … Those are all options that have happened in recent years and are choices that are likely on the table now.”
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