rights

UN, China agree to cooperate on civil and political rights program

31 August 2005
The United Nations human rights office today said that it and China signed a memorandum of understanding designed to help that country implement recommendations on economic, social and cultural rights and at facilitating its ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Colombia: UN rights office condemns leftist rebel massacre of farm workers

29 August 2005
The United Nations human rights office in Colombia has condemned the massacre of 14 farm workers in the north-west of the country and warned leftist rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – Popular Army (FARC-EP) that they were incurring war and could be subject to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

UN rights expert on visit to Somalia to assess women’s status, freedom of speech

24 August 2005
A United Nations human rights expert has begun an 11-day mission to East Africa to look into a variety of rights issues in Somalia, including the status of women, freedom of speech and opinion, prison conditions and the administration of justice.

UN panel adopts measure on preventing discrimination in criminal justice systems

18 August 2005
The United Nations expert panel monitoring governments’ efforts to ensure racial equality and non-discrimination has approved a recommendation outlining ways to prevent racial discrimination in national criminal justice systems and encouraging States to wipe out bigotry in their law enforcement ranks.

States should make more effort to prevention violence against women migrants

17 August 2005
With worker migration becoming increasingly feminized, governments should provide education about the rights of women migrant workers, allow them residency status independent of men and ratify international instruments prohibiting violence against women and their trafficking, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says.
Miloon Kothari

On tour of Iran’s housing, UN rights official sees improvements and gaps

9 August 2005
Despite positive government programmes and continuing improvements in water, electricity, sanitation and roads, good housing in Iran is often not affordable, with ethnic minorities, women and the rural poor often lacking most services, according to a United Nations human rights report released today.

UN World Habitat Day 2005 to focus on cities, slums and development

5 August 2005
With one sixth of the world’s population – one billion people – living in slums, slum upgrading and slum prevention is critical to meeting the development goals agreed on by world leaders, the United Nations agency for human settlements said today as it announced the theme for World Habitat Day.

UN human rights chief appoints independent expert on minority issues

1 August 2005
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has appointed a seasoned veteran in the fight against racism and the promotion of women's rights, Gay McDougall of the United States, as the world body's first independent expert on minority issues.