Family planning was affirmed to be a human right 50 years ago, leading to what would become the annual observation of World Population Day, which focuses attention on the impact the number of children born, has on the world.
The Nicaraguan authorities should “take real steps” to prevent further loss of life in the country amid ongoing protests and violent repression by pro-Government “armed elements”, the UN’s top human rights official said on Thursday.
For this edition of our UN & Africa podcast, Sheila Keetharuth, ending her six-year mandate as the Special Rapporteur on Eritrea, talks to Daniel Johnson after presenting her last report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Financial rescue packages offered by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to countries facing economic meltdown, should place less emphasis on cutbacks in future in recognition that the Fund has “gone too far with austerity”, Philip Alston, UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, told Daniel Johnson after presenting his report on the IMF — as well as the United States and Ghana — to the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
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.
Rohingya women living in refugee camps in Bangladesh who have escaped rape and deadly violence in Myanmar say they fear returning home because of ongoing insecurity and the fact that they have no status there, Pramila Patten, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative on sexual violence in conflict, told UN News in this UN Gender Focus podcast.
