rights

The United Nations Human Rights Council concluded its sixth session today in Geneva, adopting 13 resolutions and decisions, including a request that the independent expert on Myanmar return to the South-East Asian nation for further assessments.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights today lauded the abolition of the death penalty in Rwanda.

The freedoms upheld in the historic United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights must be enjoyed by everyone, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today on the occasion of Human Rights Day.

The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and the Senegalese Government today signed an agreement to set up a regional office in the capital, Dakar, to bolster the protection of rights across West Africa.

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism today announced that he will attend, at the invitation of the United States Government, military commission hearings scheduled to commence on Wednesday at Guantanamo Bay.

Religious belief should never be accepted as a legitimate excuse for carrying out criminal actions that encroach on the rights of others, a United Nations independent human rights expert warned today.

Migrants are increasingly subject to violence and discrimination, from prolonged detention to ill-treatment from authorities, in countries of both destination and transit, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants said today.

Aiming to help lawmakers better understand the new Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol, the main United Nations human rights office and its partners today launched a handbook on the treaty's provisions.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour today urged the Human Rights Council to press forward with its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) mechanism, which allows the human rights records of every country to be scrutinized.

Marking the International Day of the Disappeared, a United Nations working group voiced concern over the increasing number of enforced disappearances worldwide and reaffirmed its solidarity with victims and human rights defenders working on their behalf.