Tag: human rights

The initiative underscores the need for global solidarity to ensure vaccines are accessible in all countries, initially targeting healthcare workers and the most vulnerable.   Tidal wave of suffering  “The virus has killed more than 2.5 million people, and left millions more with debilitating long-term health effects”, the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a video message to launch the campaign.  “Over the past year, we’ve all missed out on doing the things… Read More

The call comes after a resumption of federal executions in the US in the last year of Donald Trump’s Presidency, in which 13 people were put to death. In their appeal to the White House, the rights experts insisted that the death penalty served “no deterrent value and cannot be reconciled with the right to life”. ‘Inherently flawed’ The punishment… Read More

Latest available data from the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners revealed that violence against women remains “devastatingly pervasive and starts alarmingly young”.  Some 736 million women – that translates to a third of all women – have been subjected to physical or sexual violence across their lifetimes.  ?data shows that violence against women remains devastatingly pervasive & starts alarmingly… Read More

Nils Melzer, UN Special Rapporteur on torture, made the charge on Monday in presenting his latest report, which evaluates States’ response to his official communications and requests for country visits.  “While the reactions of governments to allegations and requests transmitted to them, range from complete silence to aggressive rejection, unsubstantiated denial, bureaucratic obstruction and even sophisticated forms of pretence, the… Read More

Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, was presenting her latest report to the UN Human Rights Council, which is based in Geneva.  “It is shocking that between 2015 and 2019, at least 1,323 defenders were killed in 64 countries”, she said. “The pattern of killings is widespread, with human rights defenders having been killed in… Read More

In a report to the Council, he cited European surveys in 2018 and 2019 that showed that nearly four in 10 people held unfavourable views about Muslims. In 2017, 30 per cent of Americans viewed Muslims “in a negative light”, the Special Rapporteur added. He said that States had responded to security threats “by adopting measures which disproportionately target Muslims… Read More

Five UN rights experts called Saudi Arabia’ decision to re-sentence to 10 years, the imprisonment of Ali al-Nimr, Dawood al-Marhoon and Abdullah al-Zaher “an important step towards compliance with the country’s international human rights obligations”, particularly under the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits executions for crimes committed by persons under the age of 18.  They highlighted… Read More

Originally dubbed “Plantation Country”, Cancer Alley, which is located in the southern state of Louisiana along the lower Mississippi River where enslaved Africans were forced to labour, serves as an industrial hub, with nearly 150 oil refineries, plastics plants and chemical facilities.    The ever-widening corridor of petrochemical plants has not only polluted the surrounding water and air, but also subjected… Read More

Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, and Balakrishnan Rajagopal, Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, have condemned the move, according to a statement issued on Tuesday.  Humsa Al-Bqai’a is a traditional Bedouin village located in the northern Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.   The experts said its ongoing destruction by… Read More

According to the Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, thousands more have been subject to torture, sexual violence or death in captivity.  Despite the “staggering” wealth of evidence, almost all parties to the conflict “failed to investigate their own forces”, said Commissioner Karen Koning AbuZayd.   “The focus appears to be on concealing, rather than investigating crimes committed in the detention facilities”, she added in a… Read More