As the Iran-Israel crisis continued into a sixth day on Wednesday, the UN deputy human rights chief Nada Al-Nashif called for urgent talks to end the ongoing missile attacks between Tehran and Tel-Aviv.

Civilian deaths in conflict surged by 40 per cent last year, according to new data released by the UN human rights office (OHCHR) with already marginalised groups facing disproportionate levels of discrimination.

As the pall of starvation hangs over Gaza, UN agencies have sounded the alarm over deadly violence at food distribution points, where over 400 Palestinians have reportedly been killed in recent weeks while trying to access desperately needed humanitarian aid.

On the third day of the 59th Session of the Human Rights Council (HRC), the spotlight turned to reports on rising executions in Iran and the increasing repression of civic space around the world amid a wave of elections. 

Hate speech is a warning sign and a driver of violence, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said ahead of Wednesday’s International Day for Countering Hate Speech.

After a weekend of massive strikes and counter-strikes between Tel Aviv and Tehran, the UN's human rights chief, Volker Türk on Monday condemned the violence and echoed wider calls for a negotiated end to the attacks. Meanwhile in Gaza, aid workers report that mobile communications networks continue to be cut in the shattered enclave. We'll be covering these developments and more across the UN system and beyond today, thanks for joining us. UN News app users can follow our live coverage here.

Eighty years after the United Nations was established to end war, uphold fundamental human rights and promote justice and international law, those founding principles are increasingly under threat, the UN’s human rights chief warned on Monday. 

In the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Rwandan-backed rebels, Congolese troops, and allied militias have all committed human rights abuses, some possibly amounting to war crimes, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said in Geneva on Monday.

Escalating gang violence in Haiti has displaced a record 1.3 million people, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday. 

Prisons have become a fragile link in many criminal justice systems, weakened by over-incarceration, overcrowding, poor conditions and chronic neglect – fuelling calls for urgent reform. 

Tens of thousands of people went missing in Syria over the past 50 years including during 14 years of civil war. Now, some families are able to live in hope as the Middle Eastern country emerges from the traumatic period of dictatorship and conflict.

With over half of the Sudanese population in need of aid and lean season rapidly approaching, the UN Chief for Humanitarian Affairs once again sounded the alarm about the crisis unfolding in Sudan on Thursday. 

Twelve-year-old Tenasoa crawls to work every day at a mine in eastern Madagascar where she collects two kilos of the shiny mineral mica each day. She cannot walk because of a physical disability.

Nearly all the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) indicators for persons with disabilities are off track, the UN deputy chief said on Tuesday, as people from around the world gathered for the largest annual meeting on disability-related issues. 

Nearly three months after a catastrophic earthquake struck Myanmar, the country continues to grapple with its aftermath alongside the brutal civil war which has devastated the country since the February 2021 military coup.

The Israeli military’s destruction of Gaza’s education and cultural infrastructure amount to war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination, a UN investigative body said on Tuesday, as humanitarian agencies warned of continued mass suffering across the Strip.

The lack of food entering Gaza caused by ongoing Israeli aid restrictions is leaving increasing numbers of Palestinians “vulnerable to starvation”, with daily energy intake now well below what a human body needs to survive, the UN warned on Thursday.

As hostilities rage in Sudan, access constraints and devastating funding cuts are isolating rape survivors and pregnant women from essential health services, the UN sexual and reproductive health agency UNFPA said on Thursday. 

Dozens of bodies have been discovered at official and unofficial detention sites in Libya. The grim findings confirm deep concerns about abuse and torture at the facilities, according to the UN human rights chief Volker Türk. 

UN human rights chief Volker Türk has condemned new reports that dozens more Gazans were killed early Tuesday “trying to access paltry amounts of food” around a private aid hub in the south of the enclave run by the US and Israel.