The rebound follows a massive 95 per cent decrease in 2023, when the ban nearly eliminated poppy production nationwide, leading to a severe decline in Afghanistan’s opium output. However, while cultivation has increased, the current levels remain substantially lower than in 2022, which saw 232,000 hectares under poppy cultivation. UNODC...
The Israeli Parliament, known as the Knesset, adopted two bills on Monday banning UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA from operating in its territory and prohibiting authorities from having any contact with it. “UNRWA is indispensable in delivering the urgent, life-saving assistance that 2.2 million people in Gaza urgently need,” UNICEF...
Echoing UN Secretary-General António Guterres’s warning late Monday that the development would likely have “devastating consequences” as UNRWA is the principal deliverer of aid relief inside the war-torn enclave, UN human rights chief Volker Türk called the Knesset move “deeply troubling for many reasons”. In Geneva, spokesperson for the UN...
The UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts criticised the decision by the French football and basketball federations to exclude players wearing the hijab from competitions, including at amateur level, and the French Government’s decision to prevent French athletes wearing the hijab from representing the country at last summer’s Paris Olympic Games. Infringement...
Civilians accounted for 93 per cent of the global casualties from cluster munitions in 2023, according to the 100-page Cluster Munition Monitor 2024, produced by the Cluster Munition Coalition, an international civil society group working in over 100 countries. Children made up nearly half of all people killed and injured...
This, in effect, bans all public LGBT activities and organisations within the country. The nine UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts said the ruling “significantly distances” Russia from its obligations under international law to promote and protect human rights for all. The experts sent an official letter to the Russian Government...
“The images arriving from the locality, home to just above 300 people, are absolutely horrifying,” UN Humanitarian Coordinator Denise Brown said in a statement issued shortly after the attack. Speaking on behalf of the UN and the humanitarian community, she expressed condolences to the bereaved families. “Our thoughts are also...
In his message marking the International Day against Nuclear Tests, Secretary-General António Guterres appealed for key countries to ratify the international treaty that bans experiments for both peaceful and military purposes. ‘Recipe for annihilation’ “This year, we face an alarming rise in global mistrust and division,” he said. “At a...
The law was adopted shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Special Rapporteurs said they had already raised serious concerns over the law with the Russian Government and through public statements. “The decision to deny constitutional protection of the right to freedom of expression constitutes a new low in Russia’s clampdown...
“We deplore the multiple executions carried out this week in Kuwait and Singapore and oppose the death penalty under all circumstances,” said OHCHR Spokesperson Seif Magango. Immediate moratorium “We urge Kuwait and Singapore to immediately establish a moratorium on executions and join the more than 170 States that have so...
Secretary-General António Guterres was speaking to reporters in Doha, Qatar, after convening an international meeting of Special Envoys on Afghanistan. He said they had agreed on the need for a “strategy of engagement” with the Taliban, to help the country’s most vulnerable people. No question of Taliban recognition Mr. Guterres made clear that...
In statements on Wednesday, Secretary-General António Guterres was joined by deputy chief Amina Mohammed, in describing the latest escalation of the de facto authorities’ suppression of women, as a violation of their inalienable fundamental human rights. “It also violates Afghanistan’s obligations under international human rights law, and infringes on the principle of non-discrimination,...