human rights council

Thursday’s Daily Brief: dire living conditions in Idlib, migrants at US southern border, end in sight for trachoma, Human Rights Council

This Thursday, we cover: the dire humanitarian situation in Syria’s Idlib; living conditions at the US-Mexico border denounced by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF); trachoma-related blindness on the verge of being eliminated; and updates from the Human Rights Council in Geneva.

Monday’s Daily Brief: human rights in the Near East and a Forum for Refugees

Monday’s top stories include: human rights issues in Syria, Iraq and the Occupied Palestinian Territory; a global forum to find coordinated solutions to the plight of refugees worldwide; the election of the new head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Statelessness for terrorists’ families, never an acceptable option, urges UN rights chief

Thousands of suspected foreign ISIL terrorist fighters and their families who are being held in detention in Syria and Iraq, must be treated fairly by their captors and taken back by their home countries, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Monday.

Understanding of LGBT realities ‘non-existent’ in most countries, says UN expert

Policymakers in most parts of the world are taking decisions in the dark when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identity, an independent UN human rights expert said on Wednesday. 

UN’s Bachelet rejects Sri Lankan official’s ‘spin’ on Human Rights Council encounter, urges reforms

The UN’s top rights official on Wednesday rejected claims by Sri Lankan officials that she distanced herself from a report on the country and instructed her staff to be more “cautious” in future, before stressing her commitment to justice for victims of grave abuses during the civil war.

World’s human rights watchdog spotlights Afghanistan, Yemen and 12 others: Here’s the scoop

The United Nation Human Rights Council (HRC) kicked off its Universal Periodic Review, or UPR, on Monday at the Palais des Nations in Geneva to examine the human rights situation in 14 countries, including Afghanistan and Yemen.

More urgency needed to help increasing numbers ‘locked out’, before 2030, says UN’s Bachelet

Many countries are failing to protect and promote the interests of all their people – despite pledging to do so in 2016 – the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia, China, among 14 nations under UN human rights spotlight: what you need to know

The United Nation’s highest human rights body, the Human Rights Council (HRC), will start reviewing on Monday the track records of 14 countries, including Saudi Arabia and China. Here’s our UN News guide to how it works and why it matters.  

Human Rights Council election: 5 things you need to know about it

The United Nations General Assembly held secret-ballot elections for the Human Rights Council (HRC) on Friday.  As of 1 January next year, the 18 newly-elected States will serve for three years on the UN’s highest inter-governmental body mandated to protect and promote human rights worldwide.

Indigenous peoples ‘lag behind on all social and economic indicators’: UN deputy human rights chief

Progress that destroys traditional culture, language, land and human heritage “is not development, but willful destruction”, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Wednesday, in defence of indigenous peoples everywhere.