Category: Human Rights

In issuing its findings, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances – a group of 10 independent experts that monitors States’ adherence to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance – also noted that revictimization prevails in these cases. The Committee called on Iraq to incorporate the offence of enforced disappearance into its domestic criminal legislation and to ensure… Read More

The human rights activists, from the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), were arrested “within days” of a meeting with 13 foreign ambassadors and diplomats on 3 November, according to the UN human rights office (OHCHR). They face terrorism and public security charges.  “It is absolutely abhorrent to retaliate against human rights defenders from one of Egypt’s last functioning human… Read More

João Alberto Silveira Freitas was beaten to death by two private security guards outside a Carrefour supermarket in the southern city of Porto Alegre last Thursday, the eve of Black Consciousness Day in Brazil.  Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson with OHCHR in Geneva, described the attack as a “deplorable act” which should be condemned by everyone.  Structural racism and discrimination  Ms.… Read More

Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, marked on 25 November, Ms. Šimonović said the rise in femicides and violence was “taking the lives of women and girls everywhere” around the world, as the coronavirus continues to rage out of control.   ‘Femicide watches’   The UN Human Rights expert called on “all States and relevant stakeholders worldwide to take urgent steps to prevent… Read More

Mobility data derived from phones, emails and social media, for example, can assist in both monitoring the spread of the virus and in implementing activities the UN is mandated to carry out, according to their joint statement issued on Thursday.  However, they warned that vast amounts of sensitive data, both personal and non-personal, can be collected through digital contact tracing… Read More

UN agencies have warned that civilians – and especially women and children – have endured dreadful human rights violations that include numerous attacks, kidnapping and reported beheadings by armed groups, who have also clashed with government forces. There are additional humanitarian concerns about Cabo Delgado as it is among the worst affected areas from COVID-19. “It is paramount that State… Read More

Reacting to emerging details of mass killings involving scores of victims in the town of Mai-Kadra, Michelle Bachelet said that “if the Tigray national (and) regional forces and Ethiopian Government forces continue down the path they are on, there is a risk this situation will spiral totally out of control”.  This risked “heavy casualties and destruction, as well as mass displacement within Ethiopia itself and across borders”, her spokesperson, Rupert Colville, told… Read More

Having been abandoned five years ago when its engine room flooded with seawater, the 44-year-old Safer super tanker currently holds some 1.1 million barrels of oil.  The vessel was abandoned off the coast of Yemen’s key port of Hudaydah, which has been under the control of Houthi militants, one side in the long-running civil conflict between the group formally known… Read More

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) said on Wednesday that women and girls continue to be the most common victims of trafficking across the world. “The global pandemic has revealed the urgent need to address the use of digital technology in and against trafficking”, said committee member Dalia Leinarte, who led drafting of the panel’s recommendations.… Read More

“This pandemic, with its global scale and enormous human cost, with no clear end in sight, requires a concerted, human-rights based and courageous response from all States”, four UN experts together with members of a human rights working group said in a statement on universal access to vaccines.  Spiking ahead  Last month, the World Bank estimated that the pandemic would… Read More