UN rights chief: China, White House seem ‘hostile’ on rights

GENEVA – The U.N.’s human rights chief says China’s Communist Party has taken a “hostile position” on the universality of human rights and that “the rhetoric from the White House” is heading in the same direction.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein also told French Catholic daily La Croix in an interview published Monday that Europe faces a “crisis of identity and integration policy.”

Zeid says while governments must protect their citizens, he’s “worried about the tendency of authorities in Europe to overreact after terrorist attacks.”

He pointed to a U.N. tribunal’s genocide conviction of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic as a victory for human rights.

Zeid also defended the U.N. and said his office’s budget equaled “one-tenth of what the Swiss spend on chocolate every year.”