Two independent United Nations human rights experts today stressed that justice for past crimes in Bangladesh requires fair trials, after voicing concern at recent sentences, including the death penalty, handed down in cases that did not ensure due process.

Although the pace of childhood death has declined sharply in recent decades – with an estimated 6.9 million children dying before their fifth birthday in 2011, compared to around 12 million in 1990 – greater gains must be made to meet international goals to save infants and young children, according to a United Nations report released today.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) today joined governments and partners from the private sector, civil society and faith-based groups to launch a sustained, global effort to end preventable child deaths.

An independent United Nations expert has called on Guatemalan lawmakers not to override the presidential veto of a decree that would reinstate the death penalty in a way that violates international human rights law.