Austria’s Turk proposed to be next UN human right

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will propose Austria’s Volker Turk to be the next High Commissioner for Human Rights, a UN document showed. Turk, who now works in Guterres’ office as Under Secretary-General for Policy, will succeed Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, whose term ended on Aug. 31. The appointment still needs to be approved by the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
If Turk is confirmed, his most immediate challenge will be grappling with the follow-up to a report on China’s Xinjiang region published by his predecessor minutes before her departure.
The report found that China’s “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of Uyghurs and other Muslims in its Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity.
China vigorously denies any abuses in Xinjiang.