Volker Türk

Volker Türk (born 1965) is an Austrian lawyer and United Nations official.

He has been the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights since 17 October 2022.

Born in Linz, Türk received a Master of Laws from the University of Linz and a doctorate in international law from the University of Vienna, Austria.

In 1991, Türk became a Junior Professional Officer at the UN and had a temporary assignment in Kuwait funded by the Austrian Foreign Ministry.

He then held various posts with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in different regions of the world, including Malaysia, Kosovo, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

He later became the Director of the Division of International Legal Protection at UNHCR headquarters in Geneva.

His doctoral dissertation at the University of Vienna was on the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and its mandate and was published by Duncker & Humblot, Berlin in 1992.

In February 2015, he was appointed Assistant High Commissioner for Protection, making him the highest-ranking Austrian UN official.

In May 2016, Türk was awarded the Human Rights Award of the University of Graz.

On 18 April 2019, Türk was appointed by Secretary-General António Guterres to succeed Fabrizio Hochschild Drummond as Assistant Secretary-General for Strategic Coordination in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General at the UN Secretariat.

From 2021 to 2022, Türk served as Under-Secretary-General for Policy in the Executive Office of the Secretary-General.

On 8 September 2022, following the favourable vote of the General Assembly, Türk was selected to succeed Michelle Bachelet of Chile as United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights; at the time, the other candidates included Federico Villegas and Adama Dieng.

He assumed office on 17 October 2022.

On 17 April 2023, Türk called on Russian authorities to free the longtime Kremlin critic Vladimir Kara-Murza who has been sentenced to a 25-year prison sentence on charges including treason.

The sentence is "another blow to the rule of law and civic space in the Russian Federation", said Türk.

In March 2024, Türk called on China to implement the recommendations in the 2022 UN Human Rights Office report on Xinjiang.

Türk lives in Geneva.