Torture is likely still widespread in Afghanistan’s State-run prisons for detainees linked to ongoing conflict there, the UN said on Wednesday, while also noting an “encouraging reduction” in the level of abuse since 2016.
On Tuesday, top stories include: UNESCO ready to assist in rebuilding Notre Dame in the wake of a devastating fire; Nicaraguan refugees reach 60,000, a year after the crisis started; concern in Libya regarding medical access as hostilities continue; and one million reached with food assistance in Mozambique.
Two-thirds of the largely medieval roof of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris have “gone” after the devastating fire in Paris on Monday evening, but UN cultural experts are standing by to offer help where it is needed in rebuilding the iconic structure.
Top news on Monday includes: UN chief expresses his horror over the huge blaze in Notre Dame; a deal over Hudaydah troop withdrawal beckons, but war intensifies; “global measles crisis” underway.
Top news on Friday included: a call for respect for human rights in Sudan’s protests; the 25th anniversary of the genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda; five years since the Chibok girls were abducted in Nigeria; the UN chief condemning a deadly terrorist attack in Pakistan; continued fighting in Libya’s capital; and an update on Colombia’s peace process.
Sudan’s military has an “overarching duty” to refrain from using violence against protesters and ensure that their human rights are protected amid concerns of a further escalation, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on Friday.
On Thursday, the Security Council looked at the key role played by women in the UN’s peacekeeping operations. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange could be exposed to “serious human rights violations”, following his arrest in the United Kingdom, according a UN independent human rights expert. Fighting continues to escalate in Tripoli, Libya, and in Idlib, Syria, and 10,000 conflict-affected people were forcibly relocated in Nigeria and are in dire need of humanitarian aid.
The International Labour Organization (ILO) has been “a trusted voice” to “ensure social justice in every corner of our world”, Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday, at a high-level meeting to commemorate the centenary of what was the first ever United Nations agency.
Over a month after two competing resolutions on Venezuela failed to pass, the UN Security Council met on Wednesday to discuss the “very real humanitarian problem” facing the country, where close to seven million people are in dire need of aid, and some 5,000 people continue to flee across borders every day.
The UN chief António Guterres strongly condemned on Monday night the military escalation and ongoing fighting in and around the Libyan capital, Tripoli, including an aerial attack earlier in the day by aircraft from the self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) force, which closed the city's only functioning civilian airport.
