World must not normalise use of force: UN rights chief

GENEVA, Feb 27: The UN rights chief voiced alarm Friday at the normalisation of the use of force to resolve disputes, saying armed conflicts had almost doubled since 2010.

"We must not revert to violence as an organising principle," Volker Turk said as he provided an update on rights situations around the world to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned that "the threat and use of force to solve disputes is becoming more frequent and normalised".

"The number of armed conflicts has almost doubled since 2010, to around 60," he said. "The world really is becoming a more dangerous place".

Turk said there was the increasingly relentless competition for power for power's sake, to the detriment of rights everywhere.    �"AFP