GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The United Nations (UN) rights chief said Thursday his office would need US$500 million on top of its regular budget to help face towering rights challenges around the world this year.

“Lives are at stake if we don’t invest in human rights,” Volker Turk said as he launched his office’s 2025 appeal.

Speaking to country representatives at the United Nations in Geneva, he pointed to the vital work done by his staff in crisis-hit 2024 and warned that “in 2025, we expect no let-up in major challenges to human rights”.

“In this divided and polarised world, human rights assume even greater importance and must be one of the top priorities across the globe,” he said.

In 2024, Turk said his office had raised the alarm over grave violations and abuses in a long line of places, from Gaza to Ukraine to Sudan and Myanmar.

The UN high commissioner for human rights said his 2,000 staff members working across 92 countries had undertaken around 11,000 human rights monitoring missions and had observed nearly 1,000 trials.

The office’s advocacy last year had contributed to the release of around 3,145 arbitrarily detained people, he said.

Its staff had also documented some 15,000 situations of rights violations, supported more than 10,000 survivors of contemporary forms of slavery and more than 49,000 survivors of torture and their families, he added.

Turk said his office had determined that it would need US$500 million on top of the resources it receives through the UN’s regular budget to do its work in 2025.

It had requested the same amount last year but had received just US$269 million of that, he said.

That was “four percent less than in 2023”, he said, adding that the office had been forced “to spend our reserves in order to make it through the year”.

A number of countries voiced their support and vowed continued funding for the UN rights office during Thursday’s event.

The United States, which has sparked concern over recent decisions that could impact the funding of UN agencies, was not among them.

On returning to office last week, President Donald Trump said the United States — the world’s largest foreign aid donor in dollar terms — would temporarily freeze almost all foreign aid pending a review.

Washington provided US$36 million in voluntary support to the UN rights office last year, on top of its contribution to the regular UN budget.

UN Rights Office Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told AFP on Thursday that the agency had received no information so far on US funding plans for 2025, “but we do of course remain hopeful that the US will continue its support”.