Law and Crime Prevention

Demonstrators unfurl a flag in support of democracy in Belarus.
Kseniya Halubovich

Rise to the occasion to tackle injustice, Bachelet urges Human Rights Council

14 September 2020

UN Member States gathered in person in Geneva on Monday for a new session of the Human Rights Council, where UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet urged countries to “rise to the occasion” to tackle injustice everywhere.

Protesters demonstrate against police brutality and racial injustice in Brooklyn, New York.
© Sarah Scaffidi

Journalism under fire: UNESCO raises alarm over surge of attacks on media workers covering protests

14 September 2020
Global

Clampdowns on the media have increased sharply in 2020, the UN cultural agency said on Monday, highlighting 21 protests around the world this year in which State security forces have violated journalists’ rights.

International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists.
© UNESCO

Guterres condemns killing of journalists, following beheading of Mexican crime reporter

11 September 2020

Following the gruesome death of a Mexican journalist specializing in crime reporting, who was found beheaded on Wednesday, UN chief António Guterres has issued a statement condemning the increasing number of attacks made on media workers worldwide.

Photo: UNODC
A gavel in a courtroom.

Overturned verdict on Khashoggi murder a ‘parody of justice’ – independent UN rights expert

8 September 2020
Europe

An independent UN human rights investigator called the overturned verdict of Saudi Arabia’s prosecutor in the 2018 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey a "parody of justice" that spared "high-level" plotters. 

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet (file).
UN Photo/Laura Jarriel

Alexei Navalny poisoning must get independent probe, says UN’s Bachelet  

8 September 2020
Europe

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Tuesday urged Russia to carry out or cooperate with a rapid and transparent criminal investigation into the poisoning of opposition activist Alexei Navalny.  

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda. (file photo)
ICC

UN dismayed over US sanctions on top International Criminal Court officials

2 September 2020
Americas

The UN Secretary-General on Wednesday noted “with concern” the imposition by the United States of sanctions against the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and another senior official, in the latest of a series of unilateral policy moves against the body.

Somalia continues to suffer chronic humanitarian crises, with recurring cycles of floods and drought, compounded in 2020 by desert locusts and COVID-19.
UNSOM

Somalia at a critical juncture, as federal, state leaders, meet to break election impasse

20 August 2020
Africa

With elections slated for November delayed due to COVID-19, Somalia is at a critical juncture, the top United Nations official in the country told the Security Council on Thursday, pressing federal and state leaders to agree on voting modalities, and bolster the capacity of forces which are meant to assume full control of national security, next year.

Women near the town of Kladanj, in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1995).
© UNICEF/LeMoyne

Bosnia and Herzegovina should recognise sex crime survivors’ rights, say experts

19 August 2020
Europe

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, tens of thousands of victims of sexual violence committed during conflict in the 1990s still await justice, UN-appointed rights experts said on Wednesday.

Judgment hearing in the Ayyash et al case for the 2005 homicide of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
Special Tribunal for Lebanon

Hariri assassination: UN-backed tribunal finds one guilty, three acquitted

18 August 2020
Middle East

The UN Secretary-General took note on Tuesday of the guilty verdict delivered by a special UN-backed court, in the case of one of the defendants accused of killing former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, in a bomb attack 15 years ago. Three other defendants, also reportedly members of militant group, Hezbollah, were acquitted. 

A social worker (left) and a psychologist (second from left) give colouring and exercise books to children in eastern Ukraine, during a home visit to meet with the family.
© UNICEF/Pavel Zmey

Children have ‘nowhere to turn' as COVID-19 hits protection, social services, reports UNICEF

18 August 2020
Global

Disruptions to services for preventing and responding to violence in the home , due to the global pandemic, has left children in more than 100 countries vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, a UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) survey has found.