Law and Crime Prevention

Wreckage of suicide car bomb in Mogadishu (file).
UN Photo/Stuart Price

Cross-border links between terrorists, organized crime, underscore need for coherent global response

6 August 2020

The nexus between terrorism and organized crime took centre stage in the Security Council on Thursday, with experts raising fresh concerns over opportunistic alliances emerging among belligerents who share a hostility towards national authorities, and seek to exploit vulnerabilities created by the COVID-19 crisis.

Interior view of Hagia Sophia
UN News/Jing Zhang

Keep Turkey’s Hagia Sophia ‘a space for meeting of cultures’, UN rights experts urge

31 July 2020

The historic Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, designated a mosque once again earlier this month by the Turkish Government, should be maintained as an inter-cultural space “reflecting the diversity and complexity of Turkey and its history”, said two independent human rights experts on Friday.

Protesters gather at a park in Brooklyn, New York City to demonstrate against racism and police violence.
UN News/Daniel Dickinson

How do you define lawful peaceful protest? The UN Human Rights Committee has a clear answer

29 July 2020

People have the right to demonstrate peacefully and Governments should respect international law and let them do so, senior UN-appointed independent rights experts said on Wednesday.

A Yazidi Kurd from Sinjar who was abducted by ISIL, pictured here in Mamilyan Camp for internally displaced persons in Akre, Iraq.
Giles Clarke/Getty Images Reportage

Iraq: ISIL’s acts of terror ‘divorced from the values of all faiths’ 

16 July 2020
Middle East

Religious leaders from communities across Iraq called for greater “healing and reconciliation” during a UN-organized event on Thursday, reaffirming their commitment to support survivors of crimes perpetrated by ISIL terrorist fighters.

 

Information about COVID-19 is being distributed in some of Afghanistan's remotest areas.
IFAD

Protect ordinary Afghans ahead of peace talks, urges UN Mission chief

2 July 2020
Asia Pacific

Ahead of hoped-for peace talks between Afghan Government and Taliban negotiators, UN peacekeepers in Afghanistan have urged parties to “redouble” their efforts to keep civilians safe.

File photo of Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, addressing the UN Security Council.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe

Iran nuclear deal still best way to ensure peace, DiCarlo tells Security Council

30 June 2020

The UN regrets that the future of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is in doubt, but notwithstanding current challenges, that landmark deal is still the best way to ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme proceeds along a peaceful path, the UN’s top political official said on Tuesday.

Many schools in Afghanistan have suffered the effects of long-term conflict.
©UNICEF/Marko Kokic

US sanctions against international court staff a ‘direct attack’ on judicial independence

25 June 2020
Americas

The decision by the United States to authorize sanctions targeting staff at the International Criminal Court (ICC) is “a direct attack to the institution’s judicial independence”, UN human rights experts said on Thursday.

A drone flies over Mount Tamalpais in the United States.
Unsplash/Ian Usher

Digital tools being used to track people as never before, warns UN rights chief

25 June 2020

The internet and new digital tools are being manipulated as never before to infringe on people’s right to free assembly, the UN’s top rights official said on Thursday, in a call for a moratorium on the use of facial recognition technology during peaceful demonstrations.

Permanent headquarters of the International Criminal Court at The Hague. (file)
UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

International Criminal Court oversight chief ‘deeply regrets’ US decision to target officials investigating Afghanistan war crimes

13 June 2020
Global

Responding to the decision of the United States Government to sanction International Criminal Court (ICC) officials and their family members, O-Gon Kwon, President of the Assembly of States Parties, the body that oversees the ICC, denounced the measures which, he said, undermine the “endeavour to fight impunity and to ensure accountability for mass atrocities”.

Fatou Bensouda, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), briefs Security Council members during the open video conference in connection with the International Criminal Court and Sudan.
UN Photo/Evan Schneider

Sudan: Indicted war crimes suspects must be brought to justice – ICC prosecutor

10 June 2020

Buoyed by the surrender of a key Darfur war crimes suspect, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) is urging the Security Council to press Sudan to do more to bring other indicted persons – including ex-president Omar Al-Bashir – to justice.