This is the News in Brief from the United Nations.

Time running out to save Myanmar’s Rakhine from hunger and disease

More than two weeks after deadly Cyclone Mocha hit Myanmar, aid access is uncertain, disease is spreading, and a major food crisis remains a very real threat, the UN said on Friday.

Needs are soaring after Mocha’s 250 kilometre per hour winds destroyed homes, farmland and livestock, but not enough assistance is coming through.

Here’s Titon Mitra, UN Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Myanmar, speaking from Rakhine State capital, Sittwe:

“This really is a time for the depoliticization and the demilitarization of aid, because the needs are absolutely immense. The recovery will take years. There's 1.6 million people that will need support across Rakhine, Chin, Sagaing, Magway and Kachin. And the majority of these were already the poorest of the poor.”

The UN official said that an aid distribution plan has been submitted to the military authorities which needed to be approved very soon, so that aid partners can move freely.

He also warned that that if people are unable to plant food crops within the next few weeks, there could be a “major food crisis” emerging in the coming months.

Nicaragua crackdown on dissent must stop: UN rights office

Nicaragua’s Government should stop using arbitrary detention to silence critics, the UN rights office (OHCHR) said on Friday.

OHCHR said that it was concerned about the authorities “actively silencing any critical or dissenting voices” in the country by using the justice system to do so.

In the month of May alone, 63 people were reported to have been arbitrarily detained throughout the country. The UN rights office said that in a single night, 55 people were charged with “conspiracy to undermine national integrity” and “spreading false news”.

OHCHR also deplored repression against representatives of the Nicaraguan Catholic Church, accused by the Government of being a “criminal organization”, and against lawyers critical of the authorities. On 9 and 11 May, the country’s Supreme Court ruled that 26 lawyers and notaries critical of the Government, including some of the country’s most prominent human rights defenders, could no longer practise law.

The UN rights office called on the Government to stop the crackdown on dissent, immediately release all those arbitrarily detained and restore the legal status of all organizations and media outlets that have been forced to shut since 2018.

Regulation needed to curb use of AI for surveillance, disinformation: rights experts

Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered spyware and disinformation is on the rise, and regulation of the space has become urgent, according to UN-appointed independent rights experts. 

In a statement on Friday, the experts said that emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence-based biometric surveillance systems, are increasingly being used “in sensitive contexts”, without individuals’ knowledge or consent.

“Urgent and strict regulatory red lines are needed for technologies that claim to perform emotion or gender recognition,” said the experts, who include Fionnuala Ní Aoláin, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism.

The experts condemned the already “alarming” use and impacts of spyware and surveillance technologies on the work of human rights defenders and journalists, “often under the guise of national security and counter-terrorism measures”.

They also called for regulation to address the lightning-fast development of generative AI that’s enabling mass production of fake online content which spreads disinformation and hate speech.

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.