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After receiving numerous allegations that juveniles have been executed in Iran over the past year, a United Nations rights expert is calling on the country’s Government not to carry out the death penalty against Rostam Tajik, a 20-year-old Afghan national who was only 16 when he is alleged to have committed murder.

A United Nations human rights expert has appealed to Belarus not to adopt new provisions for its legal codes that he says could threaten basic freedoms of individuals and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and even make it difficult for him to fulfil his mandate.

The head of the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) today called on the losing presidential candidate to calm his supporters following two incidents yesterday in the capital, Monrovia, in which one Liberian police officer was seriously wounded and several Liberian and three UN police officers suffered minor injuries.

Former Croatian General Ante Gotovina today pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and inhumane acts brought by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) at The Hague.

As the temperature drops in the mountainous regions affected by the 8 October earthquake, the head of the United Nations health agency has arrived in Pakistan, warning that the cold and the cramped living conditions is leading to an increase in the risk of hypothermia and respiratory infections.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today commended the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) for its call on Myanmar to “expedite” both its political reform efforts and its release of political detainees, including democracy activist Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

Progress in returning to Kuwait the remains of its nationals and others killed during Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion and subsequent occupation of the country has been slow because of the prevailing insecurity in Iraq, Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new report to the Security Council.

The top United Nations officials travelling to the Horn of Africa at the urgent request of Secretary-General Kofi Annan to defuse the crisis caused when Eritrea requested the pullout of peacekeeping personnel of certain nationalities have arrived in the capital of that country, Asmara.

The Security Council and Secretary-General Kofi Annan today condemned the murder of Gibran Tueni, a politician and journalist in Lebanon, as Council members received the report of Detlev Mehlis, head of the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) probing the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The need to hold free elections in an environment free of coercion topped the agenda of meetings today in Baghdad between the senior United Nations envoy to Iraq and representatives of various political parties.