A group of UN staff members has launched a new campaign in support of Palestinians facing atrocities in Gaza, with the former UN assistant secretary-general for human rights, Andrew Gilmour, as their chair, Al Jazeera reports.

“The international response to Gaza since 2023 counts as the cruellest and most extreme example of double standards in my lifetime,” Gilmour said in a statement.

It has made “a mockery of international law” and dealt a “terrible blow to human rights globally”, he added.

Gilmour also highlighted his support for UN staff working in “unspeakable conditions” in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where he said hundreds of UN staff have been killed by Israeli forces “in their homes or while carrying out their life-saving UN work”.

Jan Eliasson, a former UN deputy secretary-general and former foreign minister of Sweden, also expressed his support, saying the “initiative is a way to remember and pay tribute to 330 colleagues who were killed in the Gaza nightmare while serving the UN and the Palestinian people”.