Tag: human rights

Slavery is not simply a matter of history. Today, more than 40 million people are still victims of contemporary slavery. I call on countries, civil society & the private sector to strengthen their efforts to end this abhorrent practice. https://t.co/2FtDcsbLd9 pic.twitter.com/4QyYgsv38b — António Guterres (@antonioguterres) December 2, 2020 In a message, Secretary-General António Guterres said that global protests this year… Read More

“Meanwhile, the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the already dire humanitarian and socio-economic situation” Secretary-General António Guterres said at the meeting online marking the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, which was on Sunday.   While noting that Israel’s suspension of West Bank annexation plans has removed a critical threat to peace and regional stability, he indicated that the expansion of settlement planning and construction continues.  Moreover, demolitions and seizures of Palestinian-owned structures by… Read More

Maxwell Matewere, a Malawian crime prevention expert with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has been active in the anti-human trafficking field for more than two decades. Today, he trains officials throughout Malawi to prevent and combat this crime: this year alone, despite COVID-19 restrictions, his work has led to the rescue of around three hundred human trafficking… Read More

The UN chief was addressing countries that are party to the 2006 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which he stressed can only be fully implemented by tackling the obstacles, injustices and discrimination that this population experiences.  “Realizing the rights of persons with disabilities is crucial to fulfilling the core promise of the 2030 Agenda: to leave no… Read More

There was a direct link between the pandemic, socio-economic vulnerability and the risk of exploitation, they said. Exploitation could mean forced labour, including the worst forms of child labour, or being sold, trafficked and sexually exploited.  Governments and businesses should recognise how the loss of jobs, income or land could put vulnerable groups at greater risk, such as people already… Read More

I’ve been legally blind since elementary school, and lost all functional vision by my early thirties. My mother didn’t want me to go to a school for the blind, and was determined to keep me in the public school system: I used the low-vision technologies available at the time, as well as learning how to walk with a cane and… Read More

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