Eighth suspect in Moscow attack appears in court, rights commissioner warns on torture
Reuters Russia remanded in custody on Tuesday a Kyrgyzstan-born man suspected of involvement in Friday’s mass shooting at a Moscow concert hall, and sent investigators to Tajikistan to question the families of four men charged with carrying out the attack. Eight suspects have now been remanded in pre-trial detention since gunmen sprayed concertgoers with bullets […]
Russia systematically tortures Ukraine POWs, UN commission says
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters A United Nations commission of inquiry on Ukraine said on Friday that it had gathered more evidence that Russia has systematically tortured Ukrainian prisoners of war, documenting rape threats and the use of electric shocks on genitals. The three-member Commission of Inquiry said in a report that the scale of such torture […]
Returning Syrian refugees face abduction, sexual abuse: UN
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters Syrian refugees who fled the war are facing gross human rights violations such as torture and abduction on their return home while women are subject to sexual harassment and violence, the UN human rights office said in a report on Tuesday. More than 12 years after Syria’s conflict began there are still […]
First US nitrogen-gas execution may constitute torture – UN rights office
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters The UN human rights office on Tuesday called on the US state of Alabama to halt its first planned execution of a prisoner by nitrogen gas asphyxiation this month, saying it could amount to torture and violate US commitments under international law. Kenneth Smith, convicted for a murder-for-hire committed in 1988, is […]
Russia tortured some Ukrainian victims to death, UN inquiry says
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Russian occupiers tortured Ukrainians so brutally that some of their victims died, and forced families to listen as they raped women next door, members of a UN-mandated investigative body said on Monday, in their latest findings from the field. Erik Møse, chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, told the UN Human […]
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 […]
Torture, sexual violence commonly used by Russian forces in Ukraine, say experts
Amsterdam, The NetherlandsReuters A large number of prisoners held in makeshift detention centres in Russian-occupied southern Ukraine were tortured and sexually violated, a team of international experts said on Wednesday in a summary of their latest findings. The Mobile Justice Team, established by the international humanitarian law firm Global Rights Compliance, has worked with Ukrainian […]
Iran violations may amount to crimes against humanity – UN expert
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Iran’s authorities have committed violations in recent months that may amount to crimes against humanity, a UN-appointed expert told the Human Rights Council on Monday, citing cases of murder, imprisonment, enforced disappearances, torture, rape, sexual violence and persecution. Iran has been swept by protests since the death of a young Iranian Kurdish woman, […]
Some Russian abuses in Ukraine may be crimes against humanity – UN inquiry finds
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Russia has committed wide-ranging war crimes in Ukraine such as wilful killings and torture, a UN-mandated investigative body said on Thursday, in some cases making children watch loved ones being raped and detaining others alongside dead bodies. The alleged crimes, including the deportation of children, were detailed in a report by the Independent […]
UN rights chief asks Venezuela to release arbitrary detainees, end torture
Caracas, VenzuelaReuters Venezuela should release arbitrarily detained individuals and end torture, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said on Saturday at the end of a trip to the country. Turk arrived in Venezuela on Thursday and met with President Nicolas Maduro on Friday, in addition to Vice President Delcy Rodriguez, senior […]