Migrant workers still at great risk despite key role in global economy
The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the key role that migrant workers play in the global…
Category: UN
Democratic Republic of the Congo declares Ebola outbreak over
The latest Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) North Kivu Province…
News in Brief 15 December 2021
COVID19 – We’re not against boosters, we’re against vaccine inequity says WHO chief Asia-Pacific sees 50…
Venezuela violated jurist’s rights, UN Human Rights Committee says
Venezuela violated a jurist’s right to be tried by an independent tribunal and his right to…
Rights defenders under attack in Asia – UN experts
Reprisals against human rights defenders were in the spotlight on Wednesday as UN independent experts documented instances of abuse in Indonesia and Pakistan. Read Original…
COVID-19 cases and deaths in the Americas triple in 2021
Compared to the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 was “undoubtedly worse” for the…
UN rights office urges Colombia to reform policing of protests
Colombia must urgently reform how it polices protests in the wake of demonstrations earlier this…
COVID-19 leads to over 50 million more hungry people in Asia-Pacific
COVID-19 led to rising food insecurity for around 54 million people living in the vast…
Fundamental freedoms squeezed in Ukraine, Human Rights Council hears
The UN Human Rights Council heard on Wednesday that fundamental freedoms in Ukraine have been…
UN agency begins COVID vaccine rollout for 7,500 stranded migrants in Yemen
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has begun a COVID-19 vaccination campaign for migrants stranded in Yemen….
News in Brief 14 December 2021
Record Arctic temperature confirmed: WMO Afghanistan revenge killings continue, Human Rights Council hears Afghanistan hunger…
Sudan: Finding consensus to move forward a ‘challenge’: UN mission chief
Finding a national consensus to move forward following October’s military takeover of Sudan’s government, and…
No return to normal without universal COVID jabs: General Assembly President
The President of the General Assembly on Tuesday announced a New Year resolution on vaccine…
COVID-19: Don’t underestimate Omicron, WHO chief warns
The Omicron variant is “probably” now present in most of the world’s countries and it…
Afghanistan: Humanitarian crisis threatens basic human rights
Respect for fundamental rights and freedoms by the de facto authorities in Afghanistan is critical to ensuring stability…
COVID cases surging in Africa at fastest rate this year, but deaths remain low
An 83 per cent surge in COVID-19 cases during the past week in Africa, driven…
News in Brief 13 December 2021
Discussions on AI weapons must advance swiftly: Guterres COVID-19 highlights threat of non-communicable diseases to…
Remember the Rohingya ‘forced to run for their lives’
The world must not forget the roughly one million Rohingya from Myanmar “forced to run…
New platform for childhood cancer medicines counters ‘unacceptable imbalance’ in survival rates
A UN-backed initiative announced on Monday aims to ensure children with cancer living in low…
Investing $1 per person annually could save 7 million lives in low, lower-middle income nations
A new World Health Organization (WHO) report shows that close to seven million deaths could be…
More than half a billion pushed into extreme poverty due to health costs
The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to halt two decades of global progress towards Universal Health…
News in Brief 10 December 2021
Rights violations deepening in Myanmar warns OHCHR Cameroon violence over scarce resources forces 30,000 to…
UN Catch-Up Dateline Geneva: COVID vaccines hoarding alert, Sahel hunger crisis, modern slavery
In this week’s show: there are 40 million slaves today around the world – find out what the UN is…
Rights experts appeal for greater civil society protections, amid rising repression
Greater protection is needed for civil society representatives who are increasingly being targeted in repressive…
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It’s not enough to be non-racist, we need to be anti-racist
“Humiliating and degrading,” is how activist Zulaikha Patel describes some of the racist experiences she…
Rights abuses in Myanmar ‘deepening on an unprecedented scale’
More than 10 months since Myanmar’s military seized power, the country’s human rights situation is…
COVID-19: WHO says countries can now use one or two courses of the Janssen vaccine
Countries “can now consider” using one or two courses of the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, otherwise known as the Johnson & Johnson, or…
News in Brief 9 December 2021
Vaccine hoarding will prolong COVID-19 pandemic, warns WHO $1.79 billion needed to help Venezuelan refugees…
Human Rights Day: Rebuild trust, expand freedoms, restore equality
Despite significant progress since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 73…
‘Genocide remains a very real threat’, Guterres warns
Genocide “remains a very real threat” around the world, said the UN chief on Thursday,…
Persecution of parliamentarians reaches ‘all-time high’
Political instability is a key factor behind new data revealed on Thursday which shows that…
Vaccine hoarding will prolong COVID warns WHO, as agency mulls early Omicron data
Early laboratory data on the effectiveness of existing vaccines against the Omicron COVID-19 variant is…
Durban +20: ‘Nobody’ is free from the impacts of racism, intolerance
As the UN independent expert on contemporary racism and intolerance, Tendayi Achiume leads a worldwide…
News in Brief 8 December 2021
COVID-19 linked to rise in TB deaths in Africa: WHO ‘In no circumstances’ should COVID…
Unilateral sanctions particularly harmful to women, children, other vulnerable groups
Women, children and other vulnerable groups are more likely to have their human rights impacted…
WHO: Omicron could have ‘major impact’, but no definitive answers yet
Features of the new COVID-19 variant Omicron, including the extent to which it will spread, and the sheer number of mutations, suggest that it…
UN’s truth-teller on racism, xenophobia and intolerance sees signs of hope, amid COVID quagmire and rising hate speech
She is outspoken, candid, and speaks truth to power. She is known to lecture governments…
News in Brief 7 December 2021
35.8 million face lean season food crisis in West Africa and Sahel COVID-19: WHO advises against…
Countries with regulations against industrially produced trans fats tripled over the past year
Forty countries now have best-practice trans fat elimination policies in effect, protecting 1.4 billion people from this…
Bachelet describes ‘disastrous’ human rights situation across Occupied Palestinian Territory
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, said on Tuesday that the human rights situation in the Occupied…
Plastics in soil threatens food security, health, and environment: FAO
Plastic pollution has become pervasive in agricultural soils, according to a new report released on…
Clashes displace thousands in Darfur, where 6.2 million will need assistance next year
With escalating violence displacing thousands of people since November, the humanitarian situation in Sudan’s Darfur is getting worse…
News in Brief 6 December 2021
Myanmar: Bachelet deplores conviction and sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi Unprecedented funding gap in…
COVID-19: Students face $17 trillion loss in lifetime earnings
School closures during the COVID-19 pandemic could result in a staggering $17 trillion in lost lifetime earnings for today’s students, according…
With 280 prisoners dead in Ecuador, UN experts call for urgent action
Following a series of riots which have left more than 280 inmates dead and hundreds…
Myanmar: UN deplores conviction and sentencing of Aung San Suu Kyi
The UN’s top human rights official on Monday condemned the imprisonment of Myanmar’s State Counsellor Aung San…
COVID contributed to 69,000 malaria deaths WHO finds, though ‘doomsday scenario’ averted
Disruptions due to the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in considerable increases in malaria cases and deaths…
First Person: ‘Trafficking is a crime can happen in front of our eyes’
Ilias Chatzis heads up a global team of more than 60 experts at the UN…
PODCAST: Durban +20 – forging a creative path in defense of human rights
Growing up in California’s Silicon Valley, African-American Derrick León Washington took note of the socio-economic…
News in Brief 3 December 2021
Omicron: Don’t panic but prepare for likely spread, says WHO Avoiding starvation, immediate priority for 3.5 million in Afghanistan WTO agrees to…