Tag: human rights

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

In a statement underscoring the need for Ms. Al-Hathloul’s urgent release, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) stressed the importance of all women human rights defenders, saying that they “bring voices from the ground and invaluable insights”.  A case in point  Ms. Al-Hathloul had, for several years, been promoting women’s rights in her country, including campaigns calling for women to be allowed to drive and an end to male guardianship.    In February 2018, during… Read More

The warning from UNESCO, the UN organization for education, science and culture, based on 2019 data, coincides with the first International Day against Violence and Bullying at School – Including Cyberbullying, on 5 November. “Recent attacks on schools in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Pakistan, and the assassination of teacher Samuel Paty in France, sadly underscore the critical issue of protecting… Read More

While excessive use of force during peaceful protests is always unacceptable, the 20 October shootings at Lekki toll plaza in Lagos were “especially disturbing because demonstrators were precisely calling for accountability for previous police brutality”, the experts said.  The fact that CCTV cameras and lights were apparently switched off shortly before soldiers opened fire indicates “a disturbing level of premeditation”,… Read More

According to the Safety of Journalists and the Danger of Impunity, a report by the Director-General of UNESCO, only 13 per cent of cases globally involving crimes against journalists were reported “as resolved”, in comparison to 12 per cent in 2019, and 11 per cent in 2018.  The biennial report also said that in 2018-19, a total of 156 killings… Read More