Every day, UN human rights officers are on the frontlines to support them. They are part of the UN’s field work, talking to those most affected by conflict and monitoring how human rights principles and international humanitarian law obligations are being respected in situations of conflict and insecurity; like in...
The UN human rights office, OHCHR, and its mandate has become a powerful vehicle for change, progress, dignity, and justice, yet “this is far from enough to meet today’s challenges”, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said in his keynote address at the +30 Symposium, Vienna World Conference:...
The development comes after more than three weeks of fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) loyal to General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. UN rights chief Volker Türk opened the meeting condemning the “wanton violence” which has brought more hunger, deprivation and...
“Despite being charged with terrorism, they were reportedly arrested for resisting forced evictions in the name of the NEOM project and the construction of a 170km linear city called The Line,” the UN experts said. ‘Smart city’ project NEOM is a futuristic urban development project backed by the Saudi Public...
Ambassadors met to examine the Council’s efforts towards building trust that leads to sustainable peace, in light of current and emerging threats. “Full compliance with human rights is the best antidote to the inequalities, unaddressed grievances and exclusion which are often at the root of instability and conflict,” said Mr....
WMO latest State of the Global Climate report shows that the last eight years were the eight warmest on record, and that sea level rise and ocean warming hit new highs. Record levels of greenhouse gases caused “planetary scale changes on land, in the ocean and in the atmosphere”. The...
An independent expert mandate on Haiti had been created by the Council in 1995 but then discontinued in 2017. The current resolution, calling for “coordinated and targeted international action”, was sponsored by Haiti itself. Country-specific abuses As a subsidiary body of the UN General Assembly, the Council examines human rights...
An initial month-long crackdown on gangs was introduced on 27 March 2022 and has been regularly renewed, with the latest extension announced last week. At least 65,000 people, including children, have been detained since then. OHCHR underlined that the right to life, the absolute prohibition against torture, the principles of...
“The international armed conflict has led to a wide range of human rights violations affecting both civilians and combatants”, the executive summary states, adding that the Office has “verified numerous allegations of arbitrary deprivation of life, arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance, torture and ill-treatment, and conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV).” During the reporting...
In a report to the latest session of the Human Rights Council, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, warned of an alarming increase in the use of “intrusive and high-risk technologies”, according to a press release issued by the UN...
The biennial panel’s theme is human rights violations relating to the use of the death penalty, in particular with respect to limiting the practice to only the most serious crimes. Promise of the Charter Volker Türk said this is ultimately about the United Nations Charter’s promise of the highest standards...
Speaking only days since a large majority of the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine, the UN chief stressed that Russia’s decision to go to war against its neighbour on 24 February 2022 had unleashed “widespread death, destruction and displacement”....