Category: Human Rights

“Despite the 2030 Agenda’s promising rhetoric, it largely fails to fulfil its pledge to ‘leave no one behind’ when it comes to the principles of racial equality and non-discrimination,” said E. Tendayi Achiume, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance. Limiting progress Presenting the conclusions of her report on the 2030 Agenda, SDGs and… Read More

Speaking in Geneva, Mohamed Auajjar, chair of the Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Libya, told journalists that a culture of impunity still prevailed across the war-torn country, representing “a great obstacle” to national reconciliation, truth and justice for the victims and their families. Regarding Tarhuna specifically, the report gathered testimonies and found evidence of “widespread and systematic perpetration of enforced disappearances,… Read More

The UN women’s rights committee said that the US is one of only seven countries throughout the world that is not party to the international convention that protects women’s human rights, including their right to sexual and reproductive health. “The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) urges the United States of America to adhere to the Convention on the Elimination… Read More

This is one of the key findings of a new report entitled, 25 years of children and armed conflict: Taking action to protect children in war, launched by the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF, on Tuesday. UNICEF’s report lays out in the starkest possible terms the world’s failure to protect its children from grave violations during times of armed conflict. https://t.co/WAAqxbYjFy —… Read More

Kaari Betty Murungi, chair of the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, was speaking on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.  The Commission had received reports last week of the killings in Western Oromia, as it continued its work investigating rights abuses linked to conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, that flared in November 2020. … Read More

According to the Commission of Inquiry on Syria, 14.6 million Syrians depend on humanitarian assistance, 12 million face acute food insecurity, and nine in 10 now live below the poverty line.  Just last month, humanitarians warned that the funds pledged for relief operations were too small to help, said Commission of Inquiry chair, Paulo Pinheiro:  Wrong priorities  “Given this disturbing… Read More

Michelle Bachelet said the restoration of public trust was essential, as disinformation should really be seen as a symptom of diseases such as systemic inequality, which has seen “deep-seated discrimination” flourish, along with fragile institutions, a loss of trust in effective governance, and “limited rule of law”. She said those countries impacted by inequality were now threatened with instability and… Read More

The Morocco-Spain border incident took place last Friday when African migrants were reportedly “beaten with batons, kicked, shoved, and attacked with stones by Moroccan officials”, said OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani, in their attempt to scale the barbed-wire fence that separates Morocco from the North African, Spanish city of Melilla. “This is the highest recorded number of deaths in a single incident… Read More

“While I welcome the international attention on climate change’s impact on women and girls over the last decade, we must urgently also focus on the grave issue of violence against them which has been exacerbated by the climate crisis,” she told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.  Countries are examining the issue as part of the Council’s annual full-day… Read More

Speaking via video conference from Jerusalem, Tor Wennesland, expressed alarm over continued demonstrations and clashes; settler-related violence; and the firing of a rocket from Gaza into Israel, the first in months, which he called “a concerning reminder of the fragility” within the Palestinian enclave. “Mounting violence has been further fuelled and exacerbated by provocative steps and inflammatory rhetoric”, he said, calling… Read More