Families in Sri Lanka yearn for answers on relatives who disappeared in civil war
Kilinochchi, Sri Lanka Reuters Arumuga Lakshmi, tormented by questions about the fate of her two children, missing for years, marched through a town in northern Sri Lanka with a group of women, many holding up photographs, black flags and burning torches. During a brutal 26-year civil war between the Sri Lankan government and a militant group, the […]
Austria’s Turk appointed UN human rights chief
Geneva, Switzerland Reuters The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday approved the appointment of Austria’s Volker Turk as the next UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Reuters reported earlier on Thursday that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had proposed that Turk succeed Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, whose term ended on 31st August. Turk currently works in Guterres’ […]
China may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang, says UN
Reuters China’s “arbitrary and discriminatory detention” of Uyghurs and other Muslims in the country’s Xinjiang region may constitute crimes against humanity, the outgoing UN human rights chief said in a long-awaited report on Wednesday. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who has faced criticism from some diplomats and rights groups for being too […]
UN rights chief says no to second term amid China trip backlash
Geneva, SwitzerlandAP The United Nations human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, said on Monday that she would not seek a second term for personal reasons, refuting speculation that it was a decision linked to blowback over her trip to China last month. Bachelet, 70, was criticised by rights groups as well as some Western governments, including […]
Myanmar army engaged in torture, mass killings, war crimes – UN
Reuters Myanmar’s military has engaged in systematic human rights violations, many amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the United Nations said on Tuesday, in its first comprehensive human rights report since last year’s coup. Security forces have shown a flagrant disregard for human life, using air strikes and heavy weapons on populated areas […]
US tells China: Give UN rights chief wide access in Xinjiang
Geneva, Switzerland AP The United States called on China’s government Wednesday to grant “unhindered and unsupervised access” to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, when she visits China and its western Xinjiang region in May. Ambassador Sheba Crocker, the US permanent representative to UN institutions in Geneva, said any interference in the […]
Activists urge UN rights chief to release delayed report on Xinjiang
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters Now that the Beijing Winter Olympics is over, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet must release her long-delayed report on alleged violations in China’s Xinjiang region against Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet attends a session of the Human Rights Council […]
Sudanese medics shaken by attacks on hospitals treating anti-coup protesters
Khartoum, SudanReuters On the afternoon of 30th December, security forces banged on the windows of Khartoum Teaching Hospital then fired tear gas into an emergency room packed with protesters injured in a nearby demonstration. “We were around the corner trying to hide, it came right past our heads,” said a nurse who asked to withhold […]
UN issues new Syria war death toll, says 350,000 is an “undercount”
Geneva, SwitzerlandReuters At least 350,209 people have been killed in the decade-old war in Syria, the United Nations human rights office said on Friday in its first report since 2014 on the death toll, adding that the tally was an “undercount”. The figure includes civilians and combatants and is based on strict methodology requiring the full […]
Call for high level international probe into rights violations in Kashmir
Decades of rights violations on both side of Kashmir’s ‘Line of Control’ should be the subject of a high-level international probe, the UN human rights chief said late last week. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made the call after a report issued by the UN Human Rights Office released last […]