Human Rights

Urban cityscape, Iran.
World Bank/Curt Carnemark

Iran: UN rights chief ‘deeply disturbed’ by continuing executions of juvenile offenders

28 June 2018
Middle East

Following the execution of a 15-year-old in Iran on Wednesday – the fourth juvenile to be put to death in the country this year – the United Nations rights chief condemned the practice, citing the strict prohibition of such executions under international law.

Inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) inventory a stockpile of 22mm chemical artillery projectiles (file photo).
OPCW

Global chemical weapons watchdog adds new powers to assign blame, following attacks

27 June 2018
Global

The United Nations chemical weapons watchdog voted in favour of a United Kingdom-led proposal on Wednesday, allocating itself new powers to assign blame for attacks.

Doudou Diène, President of the Commission of Inquiry on Burundi.
UN/Jean-Marc Ferré

Opponents of constitutional change in Burundi face torture and execution: UN investigators

27 June 2018
Africa

In Burundi, opponents of constitutional reform supported by the Government have faced torture and execution amid a “continuing environment of threats and intimidation”, senior UN investigators said on Wednesday.

Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar Yanghee Lee.
UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferré

UN rights expert ‘strongly recommends’ probe by International Criminal Court into ‘decades of crimes’ in Myanmar

27 June 2018
Asia Pacific

The United Nations rights expert on Myanmar is “strongly” recommending that the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate and prosecute those allegedly responsible for “decades of crimes” in the form a grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law inside the country.

Human Rights Council special session on “the deteriorating human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem” on 18 May 2018, United Nations Office in Geneva.
UN Photo/Elma Okic

Saudi Arabia:  UN experts push for prompt release of women human rights defenders

27 June 2018
Middle East

A ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia may have officially ended at the weekend, but on Wednesday, nine United Nations experts called for the immediate release of a number of women’s rights defenders who were imprisoned following a government crackdown which began in mid-May.

A displaced woman from northern Mali in the Sahel, waits at a temporary shelter near Mopti's main bus station.
UNDP/Nicolas Meulders

Mali: UN chief calls for calm as clashes leave over 20 dead in Mopti

26 June 2018
Africa

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appealed for calm and restraint in the Mopti region of central Mali, where over 20 people are reported to have been killed in intercommunal clashes over the weekend.

Children in the village of Benakuna, Kasaï region, Democratic Republic of Congo. 27 January 2018.
UNICEF/Vincent Tremeau

‘Crimes against humanity,’ ‘war crimes’ and risk of new ethnic violence in DR Congo, warn UN experts 

26 June 2018
Africa

Defence and security forces along with the Kamuina Nsapu and Bana Mura militias have committed “crimes against humanity and war crimes” in the of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Kasai region, United Nations experts said on Tuesday following an investigation.

A 38-year-old widow who lost her husband in the Central African Republic war escaped to the Ngam refugee site in the Adamawa region of Cameroon with her five children; one of whom recently died.
UN Women/Ryan Brown

Stigmatized, shunned and shamed, International Widows’ Day draws attention to their unique needs

22 June 2018
Global

The loss of a spouse or partner is often devastating, but for many women it is magnified by a “long-term struggle” for basic needs, human rights and dignity, according to UN Women, in a message to mark International Widows’ Day.

Women in Brazil march for women's rights.
UN Women/Bruno Spada

Women's rights face global pushback from conservativism, fundamentalism – UN experts warn

22 June 2018
Global

Women’s rights are under threat from a “backlash” of conservatism and fundamentalism around the world, a United Nation panel warned on Friday.

More than one million Venezuelans have left their country fleeing political violence, crime and widespread shortages. Many, like this family, are seeking shelter at Simon Bolivar Square in Boa Vista, Roraima, northern Brazil.
UNHCR/Reynesson Damasceno

Human rights chief calls for international probe on Venezuela, following ‘shocking accounts of extrajudicial killings’

22 June 2018
Americas

In Venezuela, “credible, shocking accounts of extrajudicial killings” and impunity for perpetrators, indicate that the rule of law “is virtually absent”, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on Friday, in a call for an international inquiry into the alleged violations.