1 month ago
MIDDAY - High Commissioner to Human Rights Council: Law Enforcement Officials must be Held Accountable for Crimes against People of African Descent and Alternative Approaches to Policing should be Applied
12 July 2021
Meeting Summaries
Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, today told the Human Rights Council that the murder of George Floyd was a tipping point, which had shifted the world’s attention to the human rights violations routinely endured by Africans and people of African descent. She said that law enforcement officials must be held accountable for crimes against people of African descent and alternative approaches to policing…
1 month ago
Committee against Torture Opens Seventy-first Session Online
12 July 2021
Meeting Summaries
The Committee against Torture this afternoon opened its seventy-first session online, hearing a statement by Antti Korkeakivi, Chief, Anti-Torture, Coordination and Funds Section, Human Rights Treaties Branch, at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Committee also adopted its agenda for the session.
Mr. Korkeakivi noted that the work of all ten human rights treaty bodies had been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, while human rights violations continued to affect victims of torture and human rights defenders.
In such circumstances, he welcomed the joint…
1 month ago
MORNING - Human Rights Council Holds Panel Discussion on Technical Cooperation to Advance the Right to Education
12 July 2021
Meeting Summaries
The Human Rights Council this morning held its annual thematic panel discussion on technical assistance and capacity building with a focus on technical cooperation to advance the right to education and ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning for all.
Mahamane Cissé-Gouro, Officer-in-Charge of the Field Operations and Technical Cooperation Division of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated that education was not only a fundamental human right in itself: it also…
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‘We are with you’: The South African care centres providing hope for survivors of sexual violence
11 July 2021
In South Africa, a sexual offence is committed every ten minutes, and the number is rising, according to official police statistics. The UN is working closely with the Government to ensure that care centres have the resources to help survivors of sexual violence across the country, including the most deprived regions.
In the Sinawe Thuthuzela Care Centre,…
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FROM THE FIELD: Desert artisans in Mali foster dialogue and tolerance
11 July 2021
Traditional arts and crafts are being used to build peace and dialogue in Mali thanks to the work of the UN peacekeeping mission in the country, MINUSMA.
Some 360 artisans based around Menaka, in the far northeast of the West African nation, some of whom fled as refugees to neighbouring Niger, have been encouraged to return to the town’s newly restored House of Artisans to practice a range…
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Ensure reproductive health rights for all on World Population Day: UN chief
11 July 2021
Erosion of women’s reproductive rights has been one of the fallouts from the COVID-19 pandemic, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said.
In his message for World Population Day, observed on Sunday, the UN chief called for closing gaps in access to sexual and reproductive health services which the crisis has created.
Grim milestones
The pandemic “continues to upend our world,…
1 month 1 week ago
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FROM THE FIELD: South Sudan’s displaced youth, help power change
10 July 2021
Young people who were displaced by conflict in South Sudan have returned home to power change in their community.
Hundreds of thousands of people, young and old, were forced to flee their homes over recent years following civil war and widespread insecurity in the eastern African country.
Thirty young men and women in the city of Wau,…
1 month 1 week ago
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COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and Myocarditis: benefits outweigh the risks, says WHO committee
09 July 2021
After receiving reports of heart inflammation cases due to myocarditis and pericarditis following vaccination with COVID-19 Pfizer and Moderna shots, World Health Organization (WHO) experts on Friday said that the benefits of the vaccines still outweigh the risks in reducing hospitalizations and deaths due to infection.
Myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle…
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Secretary-General welcomes Ethiopia’s pledge to allow humanitarian access to Tigray
09 July 2021
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has welcomed Ethiopia’s commitment to ensuring aid workers can access the war-ravaged Tigray region, his Spokesperson said in a statement on Friday.
The development comes a day after Mr. Guterres and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed discussed the extremely concerning humanitarian situation in the northern province.
Eight months of…
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Syria: UN chief welcomes Security Council extension of vital cross-border aid operation
09 July 2021
The UN chief has welcomed a decision on Friday by the Security Council to extend the UN cross-border aid operation in northwest Syria for another 12 months, providing a lifeline for more than 3.4 million people in need, including some one million children.
Secretary-General António Guterres said via his Spokesperson, that the authorization to continue using the Bab al-Hawa…
