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U.N. rights chief urges more global support for people and not nations

The departing U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, a Jordanian prince and diplomat, warned people's rights must be defended amid a rise in populist-driven authoritarians.

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein
Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein (AN/Anna Rauchenberger)

GENEVA (AN) — The departing U.N. human rights chief has a message — and warning — before stepping down from his post later this month: people's rights, not those of governments, must be strongly defended with populist-driven authoritarianism on the rise.

"Oppression is making a comeback. Repression is fashionable again," said Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, a Jordanian prince and diplomat appointed to head the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, or OHCHR, in 2014.

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