Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights was created on December 20, 1993 by UN General Assembly resolution 48/141, which also established the post of High Commissioner. Its mandate is to promote and protect the human rights set out in international law and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and it is based in Geneva with an office in New York. Volker Turk, of Austria, has been High Commissioner since 2022. In the linked stories, the office called on the Palestinian Authority on July 26, 2026 to stop torture and arbitrary detention, reported in December 2025 that Rapid Support Forces fighters killed more than 1,000 civilians in a three-day attack on Zamzam camp, and is the subject of a UN Secretary-General report (A/HRC/63/80) on its work in Cambodia. On August 5, 2026 Turk said at least 56 people had been executed in Iran on national security charges since March 19, 2026.