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

By Betul Yuruk

UNITED NATIONS (AA) - 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 on Thursday.

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

Bachelet did not seek a second term and quit her position on Aug. 31 following the last-minute release of a report on human rights violations against ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in China's Xinjiang region.

Turk will take over a challenging job facing pressure both from human rights activists and China over the Uyghur report.

China strongly denies allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

Turk is currently serving the under secretary 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 UNHCR refugee agency headquarters in Geneva.