rights Archives - Career Meaning

UN human rights chief hails ‘signs of new beginnings’ in Lebanon and Syria

·January 17, 2025·2 min read

“I arrived, I have to say, with a heavy heart, given the compounded traumas over decades in both countries, but I see signs of new beginnings,” said Volker Türk – speaking in the Lebanese capital, Beirut. On Wednesday, he was in Damascus for his first ever visit to Syria where...

UN rights chief in historic meeting in Syria’s with caretaker authority in Damascus

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·January 16, 2025·2 min read

Speaking from Damascus after meeting the leader of the caretaker authorities, Ahmad Al-Sharaa, Mr. Türk said that he had been “assured…of the importance of respect for human rights for all Syrians and all different components of Syrian society”. Syria’s de facto leader – who spearheaded the lightning overthrow of Bashar...

‘Human rights defenders are key to conflict resolution,’ says Türk

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·January 14, 2025·1 min read

For many workers, defending human rights is not just a job, but a calling. As he noted, many “work out of a deep sense of service to others, and a desire to make a meaningful impact.” From conflict zones to post-war societies, they provide crucial support to detainees and victims...

Al Jazeera ban must be lifted, rights experts urge Palestinian Authority

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·January 13, 2025·2 min read

The development comes one week after a court in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank ordered the closure of several Al Jazeera websites. A Palestinian Authority ministerial committee had earlier justified the enforced closure of the media company’s office in the West Bank, accusing it of broadcasting “inciting” material, “misinformation,...

US: Rights experts urge Senate to reject bill sanctioning the International Criminal Court

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·January 11, 2025·4 min read

The ICC issued arrest warrants in November for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Go here to read our analysis of the decision and the likely next steps, and here for our ICC explainer. Asked by...

It’s not censorship to stop hateful online content, insists UN rights chief

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·January 10, 2025·1 min read

“Allowing hate speech and harmful content online has real world consequences. Regulating this content is not censorship,” Volker Türk wrote on X. In a longer LinkedIn post on the same theme, Mr. Türk maintained that labelling efforts to create safe online spaces as “censorship…ignore[s] the fact that unregulated space means...

Rights experts call for immediate release of Abu Zubaydah from Guantánamo

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·January 9, 2025·1 min read

On Monday the United States military sent 11 long-term detainees from the facility to Oman after reaching agreement with the Government there on relocation and resettlement. Only 15 detainees now remain, according to news reports. The prison opened in 2002 and at its peak it held more than 600 prisoners...

Report details bleak human rights situation in Ukraine nearly three years into Russian invasion

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·January 5, 2025·2 min read

Covering the period of September to November 2024, the report describes intensified Russian attacks on populated areas, deliberate strikes on energy infrastructure, and efforts to restrict fundamental rights. “Behind each of the facts and figures in this report are stories of loss and human suffering, showing the devastating impact of...

Haiti gangs crisis: Top rights expert decries attacks on hospitals

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·January 4, 2025·1 min read

William O’Neill, who reports to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, highlighted an attack on the Bernard Mevs Hospital in Port-au-Prince on 17 December and the killing of several journalists and a police officer at the General Hospital on 24 December. The victims were attending the hospital’s official reopening....

World News in Brief: Deaths on the Mediterranean, rights in Venezuela, new Security Council members take their seats

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·January 3, 2025·3 min read

Regina De Dominicis – who also heads the agency’s Europe and Central Asia Regional Office – issued her plea for action after another small boat sank off the coast of the southern Italian island of Lampedusa on New Year’s Eve. “Among the seven survivors is an eight-year-old child whose mother...

UN chief hails ‘peacemaker, human rights champion’, former President Jimmy Carter

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·December 30, 2024·1 min read

The Democratic Party icon lived longer than any president in US history, serving one term between 1977 and 1981, going on burnish his reputation on the international stage by being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and establishing a major hub for diplomacy and conflict resolution in the form of the...

‘Racial justice demands collective action’, says UN rights chief, ushering in new decade for African diaspora

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·December 23, 2024·1 min read

The new decade of action starting in January, will build on the progress of the past 10 years to advance the human rights of the diaspora worldwide. “Racial justice demands collective action,” Mr. Türk said. “To secure the full rights and freedoms of people of African descent, States and all of us...