This is the News in Brief from the United Nations. 

Israel-Palestine crisis: humanitarians face “terrible choices” amid Gaza death and destruction

The UN’s top human rights official issued a new appeal on Friday for an end to the Israel-Palestine crisis and the release of all hostages.

Volker Türk’s appeal came amid rising civilian deaths and reports that children's names have been written on their arms so that they can be identified in case they die during Israeli bombardment.

UN humanitarians have also continued to issue dire warnings about the full scale of the humanitarian crisis in the enclave.

Here’s the UN’s top humanitarian official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lynn Hastings, speaking from Jerusalem about the dilemmas facing the aid community, because of the lack of aid allowed into Gaza: 

“The terrible choices include things like: where do you deliver what’s inside those ten to 20 trucks a day? Which community do you send them to? Which bakeries do you give flour and fuel to? Which desalination plant should be turned on or off? Who do you give water to? Which hospital do you send medication to?”

Ms. Hastings also stressed that the 224 hostages held in Gaza need to be released “immediately and unconditionally”, reiterating calls from the UN chief António Guterres.

UN rights office calls on Pakistan to suspend forced returns of Afghans

In Pakistan, many of the 1.4 million undocumented Afghans issued with deportation orders risk being arrested and tortured if returned to their country, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) warned on Friday.

Pakistan announced last month its plans to deport “undocumented” foreign nationals remaining in the country after 1 November. OHCHR urged Pakistan’s authorities to suspend forcible returns of Afghan nationals “before it is too late” to avoid a “human rights catastrophe”.

Many of the Afghans living in Pakistan had left their country following the Taliban takeover in August 2021.

The UN rights office said that those at particular risk are civil society activists, journalists, human rights defenders, former government officials and security force members and all women and girls - given the discrimination they face from the Taliban in all spheres of life.

OHCHR called on Pakistan to continue providing protection to those in need and “ensure that any future returns are safe, dignified and voluntary and fully consistent with international law”, which is not the case for mass deportations.

Colonial-era anti-LGBT laws must be scrapped: top rights expert

Countries that have inherited a colonial legacy of laws criminalizing LGBT persons should repeal them to preserve people’s health and rights.

That’s the message from UN-appointed independent rights expert Victor Madrigal-Borloz, who said on Friday that LGBT discrimination was used as a tool for social control by colonial systems.

Mr. Madrigal-Borloz, who is the Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, underscored that several countries had “repealed inherited laws targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and gender diverse persons”.

It was the responsibility of self-governing countries “to forge and operate legal systems in conformity with international human rights law”, he insisted. 

Mr. Madrigal-Borloz also spoke of the “abundant” evidence of the negative impacts of LGBT criminalisation on people’s access to services, employment and health.

“HIV prevalence among gay men and men who have sex with men in countries that criminalise same-sex intimacy is five times higher than in countries that do not have such laws,” the expert said.

Dominika Tomaszewska-Mortimer, UN News.