The amnesty is aimed at promoting peace, democratic coexistence and national reconciliation as the South American country enters a new era following the seizure of former President Nicolas Maduro by the United States.
It passed unanimously on 5 February by Venezuelan legislators in the first of two readings.
The amnesty “offers an opportunity to provide justice and alleviate the suffering of the many people who have been unlawfully detained for political reasons in Venezuela,” said Alex Neve, a member of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Venezuela.
“This law has the potential to contribute to restoring rights and repairing Venezuela’s social fabric, but the voices of the countless Venezuelans whose rights have been violated in the country’s prisons, as well as the civil society organizations who have assisted and defended them, must be at the centre of this process,” Mr. Neve said.
The broader picture
Following years of political violence in Venezuela, many politicians, activists and journalists have been charged with crimes such as terrorism or treason – according to human rights groups.
According to media reports over 300 political prisoners have been released since 8 January but many political prisoners remain in detention.
Transparency essential
The UN human rights experts have raised concerns about how the amnesty will be enacted, stating that its “legitimacy and impact depend on a transparent and inclusive process that is fully grounded in international human rights law.”
In a statement released by the United Nations Human Rights Council, the investigators warned of the “absence of informed, inclusive, and safe public consultations” and emphasised the need for ‘a transparent process, with meaningful participation from victims, their families and civil society.”
Calls for participation
Fact-Finding Mission expert Maria Quintero, stated that it was “advisable for the judicial verification procedure to include the participation of victims and their families, their representatives, and human rights organizations, in order to prevent the law from being instrumentalized or applied in a manner incompatible with international standards.”
She added, “we must not forget accountability.”
Whilst the draft legislation is debated within Venezuela’s government, UN experts have reiterated their call for the “unconditional” release of all political prisoners, stating that “it is critical that the process of releasing prisoners, already underway, continues without interruption.”
António Guterres was addressing a high-level open debate of the UN Security Council convened by Somalia, which holds the Council presidency for January.
The discussion comes as conflicts multiply, global tensions rise, and confidence in international institutions and rules is fading – even as the UN marks 80 years since the adoption of its founding Charter, which set out principles meant to prevent wars and reduce suffering.
“The rule of law is a cornerstone of global peace and security,” Mr. Guterres said, calling it “the beating heart” of the UN Charter.
For eight decades, he said, the Charter, alongside the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions and other core legal instruments, has helped humanity avoid another world war and limit the toll of countless conflicts.
Secretary-General Guterres addresses the Security Council.
Flagrant violations
But the Secretary-General warned that commitments to international law are increasingly being ignored.
“Around the world, the rule of law is being replaced by the law of the jungle,” he said, pointing to what he described as flagrant violations of the UN Charter and international law, including the illegal use of force, attacks on civilian infrastructure, human rights abuses and the denial of life-saving humanitarian aid.
From Gaza to Ukraine and beyond, he said, the rule of law is being treated as “an à la carte menu,” with States choosing which rules to follow. Such violations, he warned, set dangerous precedents, encourage impunity and erode trust among nations.
A lifeline and a guardrail
For smaller and less-powerful countries, particularly those affected by historical inequities and the legacies of colonialism, international law is “a lifeline promising equal treatment, sovereignty, dignity and justice,” Mr. Guterres said.
“For powerful countries, it is a guardrail defining what is acceptable – and what is not, in times of disagreement, division and outright conflict,” he added.
He underscored the unique responsibility of the Security Council, the only body with Charter-mandated authority to adopt decisions binding on all Member States and to authorize the use of force under international law.
“Its responsibility is singular. Its obligation is universal,” he said.
Priorities for action
Looking ahead, the UN chief outlined three priority areas for action.
First, he urged countries to honour the commitments they made under the Charter, including settling disputes peacefully, safeguarding human rights and respecting the sovereign equality of States.
Second, he called for the use of peaceful tools to settle disputes – negotiation, mediation and judicial settlement, alongside stronger partnerships with regional organizations – and more investment in development to address the root causes of inequality and exclusion.
Third, he stressed the need for fair, independent judicial proceedings. He encouraged greater reliance on independent courts and tribunals, including the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and stronger support for international criminal justice.
“There can be no sustainable or just peace without accountability,” Mr. Guterres said. “The rule of law must prevail.”
More than 60 people have reportedly been killed in the continuing series of attacks since early September “in circumstances that find no justification in international law,” Volker Türk said in a statement.
He urged the US to halt its “unacceptable” operations and take measures to prevent the “extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever the criminal conduct alleged against them.”
Beyond the law
The United States has defended the operations as part of its ongoing efforts to combat drug trafficking and terrorism, asserting that they fall within the framework of international humanitarian law.
Mr. Türk rejected that argument, stressing that countering illicit drug trafficking is a law-enforcement matter, governed by careful limits on lethal force set out in international human rights law.
He emphasised that the intentional use of lethal force is lawful only as a last resort when individuals pose an imminent threat to life.
Call for investigations
“Based on the very sparse information provided publicly by the US authorities, none of the individuals on the targeted boats appeared to pose an imminent threat to the lives of others or otherwise justified the use of lethal armed force against them under international law,” Mr. Türk said.
The High Commissioner called for prompt, independent and transparent investigations into the reported attacks.
While acknowledging the serious challenges posed by drug trafficking, Mr. Türk urged the US to ensure that all counter-narcotics operations respect international law, including the treaties to which it is party.
“The United States should investigate and, if necessary, prosecute and punish individuals accused of serious crimes in accordance with the fundamental rule-of-law principles of due process and fair trial, for which the US has long stood,” he concluded.
“No one is safe when human rights are under attack,” Mr. Türk told the Human Rights Council, warning that the rules of war “are being shredded”.
“Some States are becoming an extension of their ruler’s personal power,” he insisted.
In his customary address to the UN’s top rights forum at the beginning of a new session in Geneva, the High Commissioner for Human Rights decried that “pro-war propaganda is everywhere”, from military parades to “ramped-up rhetoric” from leaders.
“Sadly, there are no peace parades or ministries of peace, he stressed, while calling for countries to stand firm against the growing “erosion” of international law.
The High Commissioner also defended the importance of standing behind multilateral accords as “the foundation of peace, our global order and our daily lives, from trade rules to the global internet, to our fundamental rights”.
World order at risk
Today, governments “are disregarding, disrespecting and disengaging” the existing rules-based world order that was established after 1945 to prevent another world war, the UN rights chief insisted, in a call for accountability.
The danger is that when States ignore violations of the law, “they become normalised,” Mr. Türk said. “When States apply the law inconsistently, they undermine the legal order everywhere. It is time for States to wake up and to act.”
Condemning the continued illegal detention of United Nations staff in Yemen as a “direct attack on the UN system”, Mr. Türk also called the United States’ withdrawal “from the Paris Agreement and from global bodies, including this Council…deeply regrettable”, noting that other States were following suit.
The High Commissioner also warned of the negative consequences of the decision by Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland to leave the Ottowa Treaty on land mines, while identifying the “new trend of disparaging” the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which all countries had agreed to a decade ago.
An A to Z of rights concerns
As is usual at the start of Council sessions, the High Commissioner highlighted situations of concern around the world, from Afghanistan – where the “erasure” of women and girls from public life “is almost complete” – to Haiti which is “plunging deeper into lawlessness; Nigeria, which is seeing a resurgence of Boko Haram extremism; and Syria – whose transition to peace remains “fragile”.
In Ukraine, following the largest drone assault of the conflict, Russia’s full-scale invasion “has turned even more deadly”.
In Sudan, besieged El Fasher is under constant bombardment and the risk of further atrocities remains, Mr. Türk said, while in Myanmar, four years since the military coup, people remain caught up in “a harrowing human rights calamity”.
Turning to the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, “damning evidence” indicates continued “grave violations and abuses” by all parties to the conflict, the High Commissioner continued, while Gaza is now a “graveyard”, amid Israel’s “mass killing” of Palestinian civilians.
Where are steps to stop Gaza genocide?
“We are failing the people of Gaza…Where are the decisive steps to prevent genocide?” he asked. “Why are countries not doing more to avert atrocity crimes? They must stop the flow to Israel of arms that risk violating the laws of war.”
The Human Rights Council meets in three scheduled sessions every year at UN Geneva.
Continuing his tour d’horizon of country situations of concern in addition to thematic issues, Mr. Türk maintained that progress sought by his office, OHCHR, to protect the rights of Uyghur and other Muslim minorities in China has “yet to materialise”.
In West Africa, meanwhile, restrictions on LGBTQ+ people are growing in some countries considering criminalising consensual same-sex relations, the High Commissioner said, just as the rights of migrants and refugees are being increasingly violated.
Asylum alert
“Iran and Pakistan have forcibly returned millions of Afghans to their country and India has also deported groups of Rohingya Muslims by land and sea,” he insisted.
Similarly, Germany, Greece, Hungary, and other European countries “have also sought to limit the right to seek asylum”, Mr. Türk insisted. He took note of concerns about the United States’ reported agreement with El Salvador, South Sudan, Eswatini, Rwanda and others, to deport third country nationals, and underlined Kuwait’s decision to revoke citizenship for thousands of people in recent years, “leaving many stateless”.
Poll appeal
On imminent national elections across Africa, Mr. Türk also cited serious concerns over polling preparations in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Malawi, Tanzania and Uganda.
“In many of these countries, the authorities are resorting to harassment, exclusion or detention of opposition leaders; restrictions on media freedom; bans on peaceful protest; and crackdowns on human rights defenders,” he said.
The UN rights chief also urged the Ethiopian authorities to ensure conditions for free, fair and inclusive elections, amid concerns about arbitrary detentions of journalists.
As part of the UN’s efforts to improve and promote human rights everywhere, Mr. Türk urged all countries to do more so that “every child – whether a future farmer, digital worker, doctor or shopkeeper” understands that human rights “are our birthright”.
He added: “The vast majority of people around the world are crying out for human rights and freedoms…No one is safe when human rights are under attack. Abuses committed against one group are always part of a broader pattern of oppression and lead to the wider erosion of fundamental freedoms”.
UNHCR is supporting at least 60 survivors who have been brought ashore, but the Italian coast guard warned more bodies could still be recovered.
According to local news reports, the passengers were travelling from Libya in the hopes of reaching Italy.
Migrants and refugees heading to Italy from the African coast often use leaky or overcrowded boats organized by human traffickers and travel via the often-deadly Mediterranean route, aiming to reach Lampedusa.
In a social media statement on Thursday, the High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, reported that over 700 refugees and migrants have died in the Central Mediterranean in 2025.
“All responses – rescue at sea, safe pathways, helping transit countries and addressing root causes – must be strengthened,” he said.
UN Women marks four years since Taliban takeover
UN Women Afghanistan Special Representative Susan Ferguson addressed the widescale erosion of human rights of women in the country in a briefing to reporters in New York on Thursday, just ahead of the fourth anniversary of the Taliban takeover.
Since the takeover, dozens of permanent decrees have curtailed women’s and girls’ rights and dignity.
“The most severe women’s rights crisis in the world is being normalised,” she told correspondents at the daily noon briefing from Kabul.
For example, last year’s “morality law” crystallised the systematic erasure of women from public life, codifying long-standing social norms.
Banned from schools and most jobs, women “continue to feel – and often are – unsafe in public places, in their communities or families, and are unable to reap the benefits of an increase in the overall security situation since the takeover,” Ms. Ferguson stressed.
Migration and women-run organizations
This year, 1.7 million Afghans have returned, but women among them cannot interact with male aid workers to access education, healthcare or economic support.
Women-run organizations are therefore essential, providing healthcare, psychosocial services and protection from violence.
However, this March, it was reported across civil society organizations that funding cuts have meant layoffs for 50 per cent of women staffers, and over one-third of these organizations warned they may have to scale back or close.
These organizations are trying to keep going – but they urgently need more financial assistance.
“We must keep investing in their NGOs, their businesses and their voice in international dialogues,” Ms. Ferguson concluded.
Türk: Peru amnesty law is an ‘affront’ to victims of country’s war
The UN’s top human rights official Volker Türk on Thursday described Peru’s amnesty law as an “affront” to victims of the country’s armed conflict.
The development comes after the President of Peru signed into law legislation a day earlier granting amnesty to the armed forces, the national police and self-defence committees, for crimes committed between 1980 and 2000.
An estimated 70,000 people were killed during the conflict and at least 20,000 were disappeared, according to the National Commission on Truth and Reconciliation.
‘Backwards step’
Mr. Türk said that hundreds of cases, both concluded and ongoing, will be affected by the new law. And he described it as a “backwards step” in the search for justice for gross human rights violations committed.
“It is an affront to the thousands of victims who deserve truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence, not impunity,” Mr. Türk said.
International law, to which Peru is bound, clearly prohibits amnesties and statutes of limitations for gross violations of human rights and serious violations of humanitarian law.
The Quartet is calling on the country’s leaders to end hostilities and return to dialogue to fully implement the 2018 peace agreement known as the Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan (R-ARCSS).
South Sudan, the world’s youngest nation, gained independence in 2011 but soon descended into a brutal civil war. A 2018 peace agreement has held together but now threatens to fully unwind between the president and his vice presidential rival.
Regional pressure
In recent weeks, the Quartet has observed air and ground attacks that have led to loss of life, the destruction of homes, and the displacement of civilians. Humanitarian facilities have also been targeted, while hate speech and ethnic tensions are on the rise.
The Quartet welcomed a recent joint visit by the African Union and IGAD to South Sudan as a sign of regional support for peace. It also called on all sides to cooperate with ceasefire monitors investigating recent violence.
South Sudan’s leaders must commit to inclusive dialogue, the release of political detainees, and renewed efforts to carry out the peace deal, the Quartet stressed.
A return to war would betray the people’s hope for peace and stability, they warned. Only a political solution can ensure free and fair elections at the end of the current transitional period.
UN rights chief urges EU not to weaken landmark corporate responsibility law
UN human rights chief Volker Türk has called on the European Union to protect a key law that holds large companies accountable for human rights and environmental harm.
The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), adopted last year, requires businesses to identify and address any negative impact their activities may have on people or the planet.
But changes now being discussed in Brussels as part of a broader reform package could weaken the law, Mr. Türk warned on Wednesday.
“The CSDDD, by far the most ambitious business and human rights regulatory initiative anywhere in the world, has rightly been welcomed by companies, policy makers, civil society, and national human rights institutions alike,” he said.
“A large number of businesses have already taken steps to ensure they comply with it.”
Detailed review
UN human rights office, OHCHR, has published a detailed review of the EU proposal, pointing to ways it could undermine this groundbreaking directive.
“While some streamlining… could be advantageous, it would be counterproductive to water down its alignment with international standards,” he said.
April deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since September
April was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since September 2024, with at least 209 people killed and 1,146 injured, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) reported on Wednesday.
In its monthly update, the Mission said that 97 per cent of casualties occurred in areas controlled by Ukraine, with nearly half caused by missile and loitering munitions attacks by Russian forces.
“Kryvyi Rih, Sumy, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv, and Kharkiv all endured devastating attacks,” said Danielle Bell, Head of HRMMU. “The sharp rise in casualties was mainly due to the intensified use of ballistic missiles in major cities.”
Among the deadliest incidents:
On 4 April, a missile strike on Kryvyi Rih killed 20 civilians and injured 63.
On Palm Sunday (13 April), two missiles hit Sumy, killing at least 31 and injuring 105.
A 24 April attack on Kyiv killed 11 and injured 81.
Children were especially affected. At least 19 were killed and 78 injured in April – the highest monthly total since June 2022.
The wave of attacks continued into May, with cities including Kharkiv, Odesa and Kyiv again coming under fire.
UN experts raise alarm over Mali’s suspension of political parties
Independent UN human rights experts have strongly criticised Mali’s military authorities for suspending all political parties and activities, calling the move a clear violation of basic rights.
The decision, announced on 7 May via state television, halts political activity “until further notice.” The junta, which took power following coups in 2020 and 2021, said the suspension was necessary to maintain public order.
The three UN Human Rights Council-appointed experts described it as a direct violation of human rights and called for the order’s immediate repeal.
They also called on the National Transitional Council to strike down a bill introduced on 30 April, which repealed legislation governing how political parties operate.
“If passed into law, the 30 April bill will place Mali in contravention of its human rights obligations, notably on freedoms of association and expression,” the experts stressed.”
Protests
In response to the 30 April bill, opposition parties organised a pro-democracy rally in the capital Bamako on 3 May which drew hundreds of demonstrators. The parties reportedly demanded a timeline to end military rule and a return to constitutional order.
Another protest is planned for Friday to oppose the decree against political parties.
The experts said Malian authorities must work to counteract “the current climate of suppression of the civic space”.
“The right to peacefully assembly is essential to the health of a vibrant political community,” the experts said. “The Malian Transitional authorities must scrupulously respect it and abstain from acts of intimidation and repression that risk the physical integrity and the rights of demonstrators.”
Special Rapporteurs and Independent Experts are appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council. They serve in their individual capacity, independent of the UN system and national governments. They are not UN staff and draw no salary
Speaking in the UN Security Council, Filippo Grandi said in conflicts across the world in places like Sudan, Ukraine, Myanmar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Haiti, “violence has become the currency of our age.”
Forcibly displaced people are among the first victims of war. Worldwide, some 123 million people have had to flee due to conflict.
Since the beginning of the war in Sudan, one-third of Sudan’s population has been displaced by indiscriminate violence, disease, starvation, flooding, droughts and sexual violence, “a situation that frankly defies description,” said Mr. Grandi.
In Ukraine, 10 million people have been displaced by the war, experiencing what he described as “terrible toll.” Seven million of them are now refugees, living outside the country.
“Stagnation has defined the response in Myanmar,” said the UN refugee chief. As a result, Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh have been living in camps entirely dependent on humanitarian aid for the past eight years.
Security and self-reliance
Refugees and displaced people will not return to their communities “unless they are confident that the terms of peace are durable, for them and for their country,” he added.
Promoting security and self-reliance is essential to ending humanitarian crises.
However, a return to peace requires compromise and commitment; peace cannot be made passively, said Mr. Grandi.
Reminding the 15 Members of the Security Council that preventing and stopping wars is their primary responsibility, he noted that it was one that “this body has chronically failed to live up to.”
Seizing opportunities
To achieve durable peace, the UN must be ready both to seize unexpected opportunities, and to take calculated risks, High Commissioner Grandi said adding that “there is now an opportunity to break this dangerous inertia.”
As over one million people have already returned to Syria since December 8, with many more expected to follow, the refugee chief urged the Security Council to ease sanctions to support early recovery efforts and spur investment.
“To minimise the risk that the returning Syrians are taking, I am asking you to take some risks yourselves,” he said.
Retrenchment away from aid
Despite the positive signs coming out of Syria, as well as Burundi and the Central African Republic, Mr. Grandi told the Council that “we see a retrenchment away from aid, away from multilateralism, even away from life-saving assistance,” adding that “we hear of prioritizing national interests, of boosting defense spending — all valid concerns of course, and legitimate state pursuits. But these are not incompatible with aid, quite the contrary.”
One way or another, forced displacement has concerned every member of the Security Council, Mr. Grandi pointed out.
“You have been the refugee. You have welcomed those who sought refuge,” he said reminding its members of their collective responsibility “to end war, to bring peace.”
The Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, 2013 came into force w.e.f. 16.01.2014. The Government initiated the process for appointment by convening the Selection Committee meeting on 03.02.2014. The Selection Committee under section 4(1) of the Act, also constituted an eight Member Search Committee on 21.02.2014 in terms of section 4(3) of the Act. Two members of the Search Committee declined the offer of appointment. Looking into such difficulties experienced and to remove certain difficulties in the operationalisation of the Act including issues relating to appointment of Chairperson and Members of Lokpal, etc. in the absence of a Leader of Opposition recognized as such in the Lok Sabha, the Government introduced the Lokpal and Lokayuktas and other related law (Amendment) Bill, 2014 in Lok Sabha on 18.12.2014. The Bill was referred to the Department –related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice for examination and report. The said Committee has submitted its report in the Parliament on 07.12.2015. The recommendations of the said Committee were presented before an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) comprising seven Union Ministers. The recommendations of the IMC are under consideration of the Government.
This was stated by the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space Dr. Jitendra Singh in a written reply to a question by Shri Sanjay Raut in the Rajya Sabha today.
