“You know you are saying something right,” Stevie Wonder told reporters at UN Headquarters on his birthday in 1985. “I really don’t mind being banned. The sad thing is, I’d like to see South Africa, and I’d like to unite with my brothers and sisters in South Africa, but as long as this condition exists in the world, we cannot continue to support it as a country, as a people. We did away with it here. We can damn sure do away with it there.” 

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights urged Russia to end its crackdown on journalists in a statement issued on Tuesday shortly after President Vladmir Putin began a fifth term in office. 

When tensions erupted in East Jerusalem in April 2021 at the beginning of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, daily clashes involving Palestinians, Israeli settlers and Israeli forces led to spiraling violence and death. In response, the Human Rights Council set up a top panel of independent rights experts to investigate reports of violations of international law.

As protests continue in Georgia over a proposed draft law on curbing foreign influence, UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk on Thursday urged the authorities to shelve the controversial bill and engage in dialogue. 

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Tuesday said he was troubled by “a series of heavy-handed steps” taken by some universities in the United States to disperse and dismantle Gaza war protests.

An increase in civilian casualties caused by intensifying attacks from the Russian armed forces against Ukraine’s electric power infrastructure and railway system calls for concern, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said on Monday. 

The UN human rights office, OHCHR, on Friday raised alarm over the situation in northern Burkina Faso, where several hundred civilians, including children, were reportedly killed amidst fighting between security forces and armed groups.

A top Human Rights Council-appointed expert has welcomed the decision by all health authorities in the United Kingdom to halt the routine use of puberty-blockers offered to children as part of gender transition services, amid a sharp increase more widely in the number of teenage girls seeking such treatment and concerns that it might disrupt brain development.

Across the United States, “heads are rolling” at the top of some Ivy League universities amid a campus-wide crackdown on students protesting Israel’s war in Gaza, shining a spotlight on the question of freedom of expression worldwide, said UN Special Rapporteur Irene Khan.

Following the United Kingdom Parliament’s passage of the “Safety of Rwanda” bill, two top UN officials sounded an alarm on Tuesday about its harmful impact on global responsibility-sharing, human rights and refugee protection.

Independent UN experts have expressed concern over the role airlines and aviation authorities could have in the unlawful removal of asylum seekers from the United Kingdom to Rwanda under an agreement between the two governments and the proposed “Safety of Rwanda” bill. 

The UN’s top human rights official on Friday raised alarm over the escalating violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state between junta and opposition forces amid reports of the military regime forcing members of the minority Muslim Rohingya community to join their ranks.

Despite important achievements over the past decade to improve the wellbeing of Indigenous peoples, safeguard their cultures and expand their participation at the UN, “deep chasms” endure between commitments made and reality on the ground, the President of the General Assembly said on Wednesday. 

Tuesday marked the opening of the third session of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, bringing together anti-racism activists, human rights defenders, government delegations and others. 

With the ‘promise of a better world’ in mind, the UN Youth Office has launched a new advocacy campaign – “World Leaders: It’s Time to Let #YouthLead” – calling for greater youth representation in decision-making roles in both the public and private sector, civil society, academia, and the UN. 

People affected by gang wars in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, have been describing to the UN how their lives have been violently changed, with one person saying he feels that he has lost his identity and “no longer amounts to anything”.

Some of Haiti’s gangs have bigger arsenals than the police as criminal groups are becoming “stronger, richer and more autonomous” by using arms trafficking to fuel their growth, according to UN experts.

Boxing legend Muhammad Ali took on fights outside the ring for civil rights and against war, bringing strong messages to the UN since the 1970s, so ahead of the International Day of Sport for Development and Peace, we looked back at what he brought to the world.

All warring parties must allow safe, swift and unfettered humanitarian access and protect civilian infrastructure, top UN officials told the Security Council on Wednesday.

Racism, discrimination and crippled economies and health are among centuries-old legacies of the transatlantic slave trade and part of the stark messages behind the #RememberSlavery special events and newly unveiled chilling exhibits at UN Headquarters.