“We can only expect worse to come” unless action is taken to halt the bloodshed, Mr. Türk told Member States at the Human Rights Council in Geneva, as he reiterated his call for the extension of an arms embargo from Darfur to include all of Sudan. Rival militaries from the national army and Rapid Support […]
He warned Member States that with crises mounting, the world cannot afford a human rights system in crisis. “The cost of our work is low; the human cost of underinvestment is immeasurable,” he said. “In times of conflict and in times of peace, we are a lifeline for the abused, a megaphone for the silenced, a steadfast ally to those […]
Tuesday’s solemn commemoration marks the day 81 years ago that the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp – where over a million people were murdered – was liberated by Allied forces towards the end of World War Two. Commenting on the disturbing rise of antisemitism in recent years – including the “heinous attacks” targeting Jewish communities […]
Thousands of children remain in custody without access to legal counsel; a situation the experts warn is forcing minors to navigate complex immigration proceedings alone and undermining their fundamental rights. The three Special Rapporteurs, appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, said they are in contact with the US Government on the issue. Duty to care They explained that under the 2008 Trafficking Victims […]
UNMISS expressed grave concern following reports that a senior military leader is urging troops to inflict discriminate violence against civilians, with more than 180,000 people fleeing their homes. “Inflammatory rhetoric calling for violence against civilians, including the most vulnerable, is utterly abhorrent and must stop now,” Graham Maitland, Officer in Charge, said on Sunday. Ongoing hostilities South Sudan – the […]
Addressing the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Mr. Türk said that although the “killing on the streets of Iran may have subsided…the brutality continues”. He said that violent repression did not solve any of Iran’s problems but instead created conditions for further violations, instability and bloodshed. “We have indications that the security forces made mass […]
In a news release on Friday, High Commissioner Volker Türk said individuals suspected of being undocumented migrants are being surveilled, arrested and detained – sometimes violently – in locations ranging from hospitals and places of worship to courthouses, schools, markets and private homes. The UN rights chief said he was “astounded by the now-routine abuse […]
Volker Türk said he was outraged by renewed overnight attacks that knocked out power and heating in major cities – including Kyiv and Odesa – as temperatures plunged well below zero and civilians bear the brunt of what he described as unlawful assaults on civilian infrastructure. He said the Russian strikes “can only be described […]
Volker Türk briefed journalists in the Kenyan capital following a five-day mission to Sudan, where “a chronicle of cruelty is unfolding before our very eyes”. He called on “all those who have any influence, including regional actors and notably those who supply the arms and benefit economically from this war” to act urgently to bring […]
After slamming into the island nation on 9 November with winds of around 185 kilometres per hour (or 115 miles per hour) leaving at least six dead, Super Typhoon Fung-wong hit homes, schools and access to health services across 16 regions, UNICEF reported on Thursday. The archipelago has already been exhausted by multiple climate-related and geophysical shocks this […]
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk echoed this message in Geneva earlier this year and posed a question before the Human Rights Council: “Are we taking the steps needed to protect people from climate chaos, safeguard their futures and manage natural resources in ways that respect human rights and the environment?” His answer […]
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 rights office, OHCHR, interviewed 314 witnesses who left the DPRK – more commonly known as North Korea – and consulted with several organizations and experts to evaluate the human rights conditions there since 2014. The situation has not improved, and in many cases has worsened, “bringing even more suffering to the population,” said Spokesperson […]
Shortly after presenting a mandated report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan, Mohamed Chande Othman, insisted that both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia had carried out atrocity crimes. Among the testimonies gathered for the report, survivors from RSF detention […]
“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 […]
“They burned everything,” said one witness of a shelling attack in the Zamzam displacement camp in war-torn Darfur. “They claimed they only wanted to fight soldiers, but they punished the whole community.” The war crimes and human rights violations perpetrated by all parties to the conflict between the military government and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) […]
The measures announced on Thursday target Al-Haq group, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) and Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights, in relation to their support of the work of the International Criminal Court (ICC) on the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, following other sanctions imposed by the US Government in June on renowned […]
Ajith Sunghay, Head of OHCHR’s Office in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), told UN News that the escalation has caused extensive destruction to residential buildings in southern parts of North Gaza governorate and in northeastern areas of Gaza City. This has led to further civilian casualties and forced displacement. Local health authorities reported that 816 […]
In a statement released by his Spokesperson, the UN chief noted that the disaster driven by severe monsoon conditions had been exacerbated by climate change, impacting around 1.5 million people. Hundreds of thousands of people need humanitarian aid while more than 3,000 homes, over 400 schools and some 40 health facilities have suffered some level […]
Some 81,000 forcibly displaced people are hosted in temporary shelters along the Thai-Myanmar border where they have been living in the camps for decades. Nearly half the refugee population were born under canvas, where displaced families have largely depended on humanitarian assistance. Over a million Rohingya, a mostly-Muslim minority from Myanmar, have fled conflict and […]