That’s one of the alarming updates shared by Volker Türk during a General Assembly briefing on Wednesday, the first informal meeting dedicated to the issue of the thousands who go missing after being targeted each year. The High Commissioner for Human Rights urged Member States to do more to address...
The grim revelation emerged during a high-level discussion at the UN in Geneva on the human rights situation in DRC. The Council – the UN’s foremost human rights forum – also heard updates on allegations of ongoing abuses in South Sudan and the Central African Republic. Surging violence Despite best...
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home,” said Anna Fierst, quoting her great-grandmother Eleanor Roosevelt’s speech of 1958, in which she highlighted the number of ordinary citizens determined to be active in their local neighbourhoods, schools, and factories. “Unless these rights have meaning...
The Council – the UN’s foremost human rights forum – also heard updates on allegations of ongoing abuses in Belarus, North Korea and Myanmar. According to the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, enforced disappearances of civilians committed by Russian authorities have been “widespread and systematic” and likely amount to crimes against humanity....
Council-appointed experts pointed to grave violations of fundamental rights in Iran, linked to popular protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. Sara Hossein, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission on Iran, said that during peaceful protests, “children were killed and severely injured after being fired at with ammunition containing metal...
In their latest and final report, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran alleged ongoing serious rights violations by the Iranian authorities stemming from massive protests after the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in September 2022. Ms. Amini, from the Iranian Kurdish community, had been arrested by the country’s...
Yasmen Almashan, a founding member of the Caesar Families Association, lost five of her six brothers between 2012 and 2014 during the early years of the Syrian civil war. Today, Ms. Almashan advocates for the truth about what happened to Syria’s more than 130,000 missing persons. This quest would be...
Addressing the Human Rights Council on Friday, he detailed the devastating toll of the ongoing conflict and economic collapse on civilians – many of whom have been displaced by the fighting. Earlier in the day the Council discussed the deteriorating situation in South Sudan, having heard a report from rights...
Mr. Türk – making his closing remarks during the session reporting on the Occupied Palestinian Territory at the Human Rights Council – said he was deeply troubled by the “dangerous manipulation of language” and disinformation that surrounds discussions over the Palestine-Israel conflict. “We need to make sure that we resist...
Released on Tuesday, the new report highlights that at least 5,626 people have been killed and more than 2,213 injured in the past year, due to the armed gangs who control much of the capital and the country at large. These figures reflect a sharp increase of over 1,000 fatalities...
Health authorities in Kampala confirmed that one patient has died – a nurse who had sought treatment at various other medical facilities after developing fever-like symptoms. In response to the outbreak of the often deadly and infectious haemorrhagic fever which is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and tissue, WHO...
The rebels have already seized the provincial capital, Goma, and reports indicate that they are closing in on the key city of Bukavu, capital of South Kivu province. The hostilities are occurring in a mineral-rich region that has been volatile for decades amid a proliferation of armed groups, which has...