UN appoints Austria’s Volker Turk as next human rights chief

NEW YORK – United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Austrian diplomat Volker Turk as the next high commissioner for human rights.

Guterres’ nomination of the veteran diplomat as the next UN rights chief was approved by the UN General Assembly yesterday.

Turk will succeed Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, who served a four-year term at the Geneva-based UN human rights body.

Turk is currently serving as the undersecretary-general in the UN’s Executive Office coordinating global policy work.

He also worked for the UN refugee agency in Malaysia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Congo, and Kuwait, and at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees headquarters in Geneva. – Bernama, September 9, 2022