The UN high commissioner for human rights has voiced concerns over allegations of continued violations of international law in southeast Turkey.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein made the remarks during a speech at the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council held in Geneva on Tuesday.

“We have received repeated and serious allegations of on-going violations of international law as well as human rights concerns, including civilian deaths, extrajudicial killings and massive displacement,” he said.

While adding that his concerns over people’s rights in the region remain “acute,” the high commissioner stressed that sufficient consideration must be lent toward the humanitarian and protection requirements for the thousands who have been displaced and affected by Ankara’s actions in the region.

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Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies in the Persian Gulf region have expressed dissatisfaction about recent legislation in the US that would enable the families of the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks to lodge complaints against Riyadh and demand reparations over the kingdom’s alleged role. The group of the six Arab nations, known as the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council ([P]GCC), issued a statement on Monday, claiming that the legislation was against international law and posed risks to relations between countries.

The head of the six-nation group said the law was “contrary to the foundations and principles of relations between states and the principle of sovereign immunity enjoyed by states.” “Such laws will negatively affect the international efforts and international cooperation to combat terrorism,” Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani added and hoped that the US would cast aside the bill.

In separate statements, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar, both members of the group, expressed concerns about the consequences of the congressional move on relations between the United State and other countries. The September 11 legislation was approved Friday in the US House of Representatives. It had initially gained the endorsement of the Senate. However, the White House has hinted that President Barack Obama may veto the move over concerns that it could prompt other countries to pursue similar lawsuits against the US.

Observers say, however, that Obama is more concerned about the economic impacts of the legislation as officials in oil-rich Saudi Arabia have previously threatened that any legal action against Riyadh over the 9/11 attacks would prompt them to rethink their future investment plans in the US. Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of the attacks on September 11, 2001 which saw nearly 3,000 killed in hijacked plane attacks in New York, the Washington, D.C. area and Pennsylvania.

Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were Saudi nationals. In July, excerpts of a congressional report on 9/11 were released which found that some of the hijackers had ties to Saudi government officials. However, the allegations have never been substantiated by an official body in the US. The government in Riyadh has strongly denied any role in the incidents and has lobbied against the bill. The [P]GCC, a body which also includes Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman, is strongly influenced by Saudi Arabia and has a record of obeying the official policy of Riyadh in dealing with regional and international developments.

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An estimated 5,000 members of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group are currently living in the countries of the European Union. The revelation was made at a conference called the European Security Policy in the Belgian capital, Brussels, on Wednesday, where it was also revealed that the vast majority of the Takfiri terrorists living in the EU are themselves European citizens. Experts at the conference discussed the EU’s failed security police, saying the terrorists, who are scattered all across the 28-member bloc, have ambitions to carry out more deadly attacks on European soil.

The conference criticized the lack of a coordinated approach to tackling terrorism and poor levels of intelligence sharing among EU countries. “These threats, in Europe at least, stem from dysfunctional and difficult domestic politics, more than they stem from external sources,” said Jeremy Shapiro (pictured below), the research director of the European Council on Foreign Relations.

Stressing the need for securing the borders of EU countries, former EU Commissioner Michel Barnier said at the conference that the refugee crisis faced by Europe could potentially be exploited by the terrorists who might enter the bloc disguised as asylum seekers.

“There are about 250,000 Syrians in Libya waiting for the opportunity to cross the sea and about 3 million Syrian refugees in Turkey without mentioning those in Lebanon and Jordan, so it is not over,” Barnier said. Large numbers of refugees fleeing from conflict zones in the Middle East and Africa have been arriving in Europe in search of a better life. Most of them take sea routes to the external borders of the EU.

Meanwhile, European states have been seeing a number of their citizens attempting to join terrorist groups in the Middle East over the past few years. In February, the EU’s criminal intelligence agency, Europol, said some 30,000 militants from over 100 countries have reportedly traveled to Syria and Iraq since 2011 to join the ranks of Takfiri terrorist groups.

The European terrorists can potentially return to their home countries, battle-hardened, to carry out attacks there. Back in November last year, Daesh launched a series of attacks in the French capital of Paris, killing a total of 130 people. Investigations into the incident revealed that the perpetrators were mostly Belgium-based.

In March, two bomb attacks in Brussels killed at least 14 people and left nearly 100 people wounded, while a separate bombing in a metro station killed around 20 people and injured about 100 others. Belgium, home to the main institutions of the European Union and the NATO headquarters, has been viewed as the prime source of recruitment for Daesh in Europe. Daesh terrorists are mainly operating in Syria and its eastern neighbor, Iraq.

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