"Last February, U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres traveled to Cairo to outline his vision for peace in the Arab world in a major speech. His advisors privately urged him to signal U.N. concerns about rampant human rights violations by the Egyptian government, and included a brief passage in his speech highlighting the importance of civil liberties.
It never got uttered.
The omission provided early insight into a U.N. leader who has chosen to tread lightly on human rights issues as he seeks to carve out a role for himself as a potential peacemaker around the world. In meetings with influential foreign autocrats, from Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud, Guterres has shown an aversion to delivering stern lectures about crackdowns on journalists and human rights advocates.
'He doesn't talk about these things; he doesn't like bringing them up,' said one European ambassador based at the United Nations...
But the U.N. leader's reticence about trumpeting human rights concerns from the podium has vexed some diplomats and human rights advocates, who argue that it is all the more important for the U.N. chief to confront abuses at a time when the United States under President Donald Trump, as well as some of its European allies, has downgraded the importance of human rights in its own foreign policy...
If the Trump administration's retreat from human rights advocacy seemingly makes Guterres' role all the more important, Washington's animus toward the United Nations - Trump has proposed slashing U.S. funding for the U.N. - also has him watching his steps.
'The wrecking ball in Washington has led him to tread more cautiously than he might have on human rights,' [Human Rights Watch Executive Director Kenneth] Roth said...
In his Cairo speech, Guterres chose to ditch his script, delivering a partly extemporaneous address. 'Did he intentionally leave out the positive words about the importance of civil society? Or did he just ad lib nearly the whole thing, and forget about civil society?,' said one U.N. diplomat. 'I can't answer that.'..."