GENEVA: The world faces the most intense competition for power and resources since World War Two amid widespread rights violations in conflicts in Sudan, Gaza, Myanmar and Ukraine, the United Nations human rights chief said on Monday.

"A fierce competition for power, control and resources is playing out on the world stage at a rate and intensity unseen for the past 80 years," said the U.N's high commissioner for the office of human rights at the opening of the Human Rights Council.