Page 2 - United Nations Human Rights Council

UN special representative calls on Taliban to reverse restrictions on women

The Taliban has restricted media freedoms and banned women from public places like parks and gyms

UK announces new sanctions on Israeli settlers over 'human rights abuses'

The United Kingdom on Monday announced new sanctions on the four extremist Israeli settlers, who committed alleged human rights abuses against Palestinian communities in the West Bank

75 years of Universal Declaration of Human Rights: What has it achieved?

The declaration isn't a treaty and isn't legally binding in itself, but the principles it sets out have been incorporated into many countries' laws

World Kindness Day 2023: History, importance, theme, wishes, quotes

World Kindness Day is committed to the act of kindness. The day helps us to remember the strong ripple effect that acts of kindness can have on an individual, a community, and the world in general

'Get us out of this hellhole': SOS messages by UNRWA staff in Gaza

The 13,000-strong staff working with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is terrified and tired and described the situation in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip as a hellhole, a spokeswoman for the agency said. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is the largest UN agency working in the Gaza Strip, both in terms of the size of its operations as well as the number of staff. The 13,000-strong UNRWA staff in Gaza includes teachers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, warehouse workers, logisticians, technicians and drivers. We have a very, very big operation in the Gaza Strip. What we hear from our staff is that they are terrified and they're tired. They want all of this to come to an end and the message that we're getting is: Get us out of this hellhole. This has become hell', UNRWA Director of Communications Juliette Touma told reporters here through video conference on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Touma said the messages of SOS' have

Israel to enable humanitarian aid for civilians in Gaza: US Secy Blinken

Blinken noted that Biden will receive a comprehensive brief on Israel's war aims and strategy

UNICEF India head Cynthia McCaffery bats for child-friendly, safe cities

UNICEF India head Cynthia McCaffery has stressed on developing cities that are safe, accessible and friendly for children and youth. Clean air, green spaces and a safe environment benefit not only children but the entire community, McCaffrey said. She participated in the Urban 20 (U20) Mayoral Summit held in Gujarat's Gandhinagar and Ahmedabad cities on July 7 and 8, as part of India's G20 presidency, where discussions were held on the future of cities of the world. "More than 56 per cent of the population currently lives in urban areas. Estimates suggest that 70 per cent of the global population will live in cities by 2050, adding an additional 2.5 billion people to the urban population mostly in Asia and Africa. This means that there will be more than 1.6 billion children living in urban areas by 2050, McCaffery said. Every week, around 1.4 million people move to urban areas worldwide and many of the people will find themselves living in temporary and informal settlements, she ..

Restrictions on women, girls should be removed in Afghanistan: UN

They demanded that the 9international community should closely monitor human rights violations in Afghanistan and pressurize the Taliban to alter their conduct

UNHRC passes resolution on human rights abuses in Sudan, amid conflict

The United Nation's top human rights body adopted a resolution on Thursday that drew attention to mounting civilian deaths and rights abuses in Sudan since a bloody conflict erupted between the African country's two top generals last month. The violence in Sudan has so far killed more than 600 people, including civilians, and displaced hundreds of thousands. The fighting has also spread to other regions, namely the restive Darfur province. The Human Rights Council - made up of 47 UN member states - narrowly passed the resolution with 18 states voting for the resolution, 15 against and 14 other nations abstaining. The resolution aims to further scrutinise human rights violations taking place in Sudan since April 15. The fighting in Sudan started as a result of a power struggle between the chief of Sudan's military, Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan, and rival Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. Arab and African nations - including Sudan -

As SC examines the issue, a look at status of same-sex marriages globally

The Netherlands became the first country to legalise same-sex marriage when the Dutch parliament passed a landmark bill in December, 2000 allowing the practise

UN chief Guterres points to 'massive' rights violations in Ukraine

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has triggered the most massive violations of human rights in the world today, the head of the United Nations said on Monday, as the war pushed into its second year with no end in sight. The Russian invasion has unleashed widespread death, destruction and displacement, UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres said in a speech to the UN-backed Human Rights Council in Geneva. After failing to capture the Ukrainian capital in the opening weeks of the invasion and suffering a series of humiliating setbacks in the east and the south during the fall, Russia has stabilised the front and is concentrating its efforts on a slow push to capture the rest of the Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas. Ukraine, meanwhile, hopes to use battle tanks and other new weapons pledged by the West to launch new counteroffensives and reclaim more of the occupied territory. He said attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure have caused many casualties

UN chief Guterres slams 'climate-wrecking' firms at human rights body

UN Secretary-General Antnio Guterres on Monday stressed the importance of legal challenges against climate-wrecking corporations" like fossil-fuel producers, ratcheting up his call for the fight against climate change - this time before the UN's top human rights body. Guterres opened the latest session of the Human Rights Council, part of an address that decried summary executions, torture and sexual violence in places like Ukraine; antisemitism, anti-Muslim bigotry and the persecution of Christians; inequality and threats to free expression, among other issues. Guterres also sought to undergird the concept of human rights which have faced "public disregard and private disdain and tie them together with environmental concerns. "Human rights are not a luxury that can be left until we find a solution to the world's other problems. They are THE solution to many of the world's other problems," he said. From the climate emergency to the misuse of technology, the answers to today's cri

World NGO Day 2023: Theme, quotes, history, significance, celebration

February 27 is marked as World NGO Day, celebrated to recognise and honour the objective of contributing to society and these organisations

UN Rights chief urges Taliban to drop work restriction on Afghan women

The United Nations' human rights chief on Tuesday decried increasing restrictions on women's rights in Afghanistan, urging the country's Taliban rulers to reverse them immediately. He pointed to terrible consequences of a decision to bar women from working for non-governmental organisations. Last week, Taliban authorities stopped university education for women, sparking international outrage and demonstrations in Afghan cities. On Saturday, they announced the exclusion of women from NGO work, a move that already has prompted four major international aid agencies to suspend operations in Afghanistan. No country can develop indeed survive socially and economically with half its population excluded," U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Trk said in a statement issued in Geneva. "These unfathomable restrictions placed on women and girls will not only increase the suffering of all Afghans but, I fear, pose a risk beyond Afghanistan's borders. This latest decree by the de f

Opposition slams govt over India's UNHRC move on China's Xinjiang

Opposition leaders on Friday criticised the government for abstaining from voting on a draft resolution in the UN Human Rights Council on holding a debate on the human rights situation in China's restive Xinjiang region, saying India should speak for what is right and should not be afraid of its neighbour. Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Manish Tewari wondered why there was "so much diffidence on China". "The Government of India will not agree to a Parliamentary debate on Chinese incursions. India will abstain at UNHRC on a resolution for debate on human rights in Xinjiang," he tweeted. He alleged that the Ministry of External Affairs does not accord political clearance to Parliamentarians to visit Taiwan. Trinamool Congress spokesperson Saket Gokhale tweeted, "Giving them our land and abstaining on holding them to account. What exactly is it that makes (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi so afraid of China?" AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi wanted to know from the prime minis

UN warns 6 mn Afghans at risk of famine, urges donors to restore funding

Warning that Afghanistan faces deepening poverty with 6 million people at risk of famine, the U.N. humanitarian chief on Monday urged donors to restore funding for economic development and immediately provide $770 million to help Afghans get through the winter as the United States argued with Russia and China over who should pay. Martin Griffiths told the U.N. Security Council that Afghanistan faces multiple crises -- humanitarian, economic, climate, hunger and financial. Conflict, poverty, climate shocks and food insecurity have long been a sad reality in Afghanistan, but he said what makes the current situation so critical is the halt to large-scale development aid since the Taliban takeover a year ago. More than half the Afghan population -- some 24 million people -- need assistance and close to 19 million are facing acute levels of food insecurity, Griffiths said. And we worry that the figures will soon become worse because winter weather will send already high fuel and food ..

UN rights commissioner slams pressure over Xinjiang report on China

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet expressed criticism at the pressure she is under over publishing a report into the human rights situation in China's Xinjiang region

UN refugee agency to build 2,300 earthquake-resilient houses in Afghanistan

UNHCR teams have met with communities to present the project, identify the worst-affected families, and organize community groups to implement the community-based scheme

UN human rights chief to visit China today amid reports of abuse on Uyghurs

The four days visit to China, which will include a visit to Xinjiang, should highlight the need for justice for victims of violations and accountability for those responsible: Human Right Watch

PMK, VCK ask Centre not to give political asylum to Mahinda Rajapaksa

Former Union Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said that Mahinda Rajapakse was facing serious charges of genocide against the Tamil population of the island nation during civil war in that country in 2009