Funding cuts to human rights are comfort to dictators, UN's Turk says

The U.N. human rights chief said on Monday that he was deeply worried about donor cuts to his office that would weaken global accountability efforts and be a comfort to dictators and authoritarians.

In an opening speech to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Volker Turk warned that early warning systems for abuses as well as advocacy efforts for those wrongly imprisoned would be impacted by lower spending.

"Funding cuts to my office, and the broader human rights ecosystem, offer comfort to dictators and authoritarians," he told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva at the start of its four-week session.