• Turk, an Austrian, has run for the top UN rights job, drawing inspiration from his country’s history of anti-Semitism and Holocaust participation.
• He cites the rise of populist, extremist politics to the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences.
• Turk intends to use his position to influence global issues such as climate change.

On Wednesday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights urged vigilance against far-right political gains in Europe, highlighting narratives that dehumanize migrants and asylum seekers.

“We need to be very vigilant because especially history tells us, in particular in Europe, that the vilification of the other, that the denigration of the other, is a harbinger for what’s to come,” Volker Turk told reporters at a press conference in Geneva. “It’s an alarm bell we need to ring.”

Far-right parties gained ground in the European Parliament last month, and France is holding a run-off election this weekend where opponents of its far-right, anti-immigrant National Rally are aiming to prevent them from taking power.

As an Austrian, Turk has previously cited a desire to prevent future atrocities, drawing inspiration from his country’s history as a hotbed of anti-Semitism in the 1930s and its participation in the Holocaust following its annexation by Nazi Germany in 1938, as a motivation for running for the top UN rights job.

As a former senior official at the UN refugee agency, Turk spent years advocating to enhance their protections.

“In Europe, we have unfortunately seen an increase in hate speech, an increase in discriminatory speech, and it’s important that political leaders are very clear that there should be zero tolerance for hate speech and for any attempt to denigrate others,” he said.

Turk attributed the rise of populist, extremist politics to the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences, including increasing living costs, which have disenfranchised and disillusioned a large segment of the population.

“The traditional political parties never are self-reflective about how they actually could do their job to respond to legitimate grievances that populations and constituencies have,” he added.

Turk, who is nearly halfway through his four-year term as UN rights chief and whose role involves speaking out against attacks on freedoms, expressed his intention to use his position to influence global issues such as climate change.

However, he stated that wars, including those in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan, had compelled him to shift into “crisis management” mode.

“We have seen the normalization of things that, frankly, were quite unthinkable, even a couple of years ago,” he said.

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