UN marks 75 years of human rights declaration in shadow of Gaza
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters The UN human rights chief urged countries on Monday to work together to defeat threats such as war and pollution at an event to mark 75 years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that risks being overshadowed by the Israel-Hamas conflict. Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, attends the […]
El Salvador experiencing “alarming regression” on human rights – report
San Salvador, El SalvadorReuters El Salvador has seen “an alarming regression” of human rights protections during President Nayib Bukele’s government, a trend that has intensified under a sweeping anti-gang crackdown, Amnesty International said in a report published on Tuesday. Bukele has enjoyed widespread popularity since taking office in 2019, due in part to a state […]
UN probe finds new evidence Russia committed war crimes and ‘indiscriminate attacks’ in Ukraine
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters A United Nations commission of inquiry on Ukraine said on Friday it had found additional evidence that Russian forces had committed “indiscriminate attacks” and war crimes in Ukraine, including rape and the deportation of children to Russia. “The Commission has found new evidence that Russian authorities have committed violations of international human rights […]
UN rights body adopts resolution to probe rights abuses in war-torn Sudan
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters The United Nations Humans Rights Council on Wednesday adopted a resolution that opens a probe into the humanitarian situation in Sudan where the army and a paramilitary group have been fighting for the last six months. “This resolution is a call to action for what we all agree are the pressing priorities for […]
UN records torture, deaths of detainees in Taliban custody
Reuters The United Nations has recorded over 1,600 incidents of rights violations against people detained by the Taliban authorities, nearly half of them acts of torture and ill-treatment mostly by police and intelligence agents, a report released on Wednesday showed. The UN Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) said 18 people had also died in prisons and […]
Human rights in Russia have “significantly deteriorated” since war – UN expert
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters The human rights situation in Russia has significantly deteriorated since it invaded Ukraine in February last year, a United Nations expert said on Monday, describing a “systematic crackdown” on civil society and calling for redress. The report by Special Rapporteur Mariana Katzarova alleges that Russian authorities have carried out mass arbitrary arrests of […]
Human rights groups send COP28 demands to UAE, governments
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters More than 200 civil society groups have written to the United Arab Emirates, host of this year’s COP28 UN climate summit, and all participating governments with a series of demands concerning the Gulf nation’s human rights record. The UAE, a Gulf trading and tourism hub, big oil producer and a US ally, […]
UN rights expert urges US to go further with sanctions against Myanmar junta
Washington DC, US Reuters The UN human rights expert for Myanmar on Wednesday called on the United States to further tighten sanctions on the country’s military rulers to include their main revenue source, the state oil and gas enterprise. UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews, a former member of the US Congress, also said it was […]
Arrest, detain, repeat: The Russian war critics caught in jail “carousel”
LUCY PAPACHRISTOU and FILIPP LEBEDEV, of Reuters, report…
Essay: Climate change threatens the rights of children. The UN just outlined the obligations states have to protect them
In an article first published on The Conversation, NOAM PELEG, an associate at the Australian Human Rights Institute at UNSW Sydney, looks at what the UN is saying are the responsibilities of governments – in particularly Australian governments – when it comes to protecting children from climate change…