Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered spyware and disinformation is on the rise, and regulation of the space has become urgent, according to UN-appointed independent rights experts.

With Ukraine’s Children’s Day celebrations on Thursday marred by the death of a girl alongside other civilians in a Russian missile attack in the capital Kyiv, the UN’s top humanitarian official in the country, Denise Brown, said she was “shocked and saddened” by the incident.

The UN in Bangladesh on Thursday condemned a second cut in food rations for Rohingya refugees who are sheltering in the country, after a funding shortfall of $56 million compelled the World Food Programme (WFP) to enforce the cuts.

As the world comes together to celebrate the beginning of Pride Month on Thursday, the UN agency dedicated to ending the AIDS epidemic, UNAIDS, issued a declaration of solidarity with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) communities around the globe.

UN chief António Guterres is “deeply concerned” after Uganda’s president signed into law a punitive so-called “Anti-Homosexuality Act”, the UN Spokesperson said in a statement released late on Tuesday.

The UN chief on Wednesday commended the work of the judges and staff of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), as its final judgement was delivered, increasing the prison sentences on appeal of two former top Serbian security officials.

Racism is a global problem, and every country must take a stance against it, General Assembly President Csaba Kőrösi said on Monday, addressing the latest meeting of a UN platform to improve the safety and quality of life of people of African descent worldwide.   

A large group of UN-appointed independent human rights experts on Tuesday called on the Belarusian authorities to immediately release all those being held on “spurious charges”, simply for exercising their fundamental rights to peaceful assembly, association and expression, to be released without delay.

Allowing space for everyone to speak up, is critical for a free and fully functioning society said the UN human rights chief on Friday, warning that a safe environment online has never been more essential.

UN Special Representative, Pramila Patten, expressed her ‘deep concern’ on Thursday over increasing allegations of sexual violence against women and girls being carried out in camps for the internally displaced (IDPs) around Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

The UN and humanitarian partners are mobilizing to reach as many people as possible while the stuttering ceasefire between warring military factions is being respected, said the UN Spokesperson on Thursday.

The “senseless” fighting in Sudan must stop now, and the warring generals have to insist on zero tolerance for sexual violence among their troops, the UN rights chief said on Wednesday.

The decision by El Salvador to extend a state of emergency aimed at cracking down on gangs undermines the right to fair trial, three experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said on Monday. 

Children in the Horn of Africa are living through an unprecedented large-scale crisis of hunger, displacement, water scarcity, and insecurity, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday.

The UN Human Rights Council-appointed panel of independent experts examining the Iranian Government’s response to protests that erupted there last November, has said that it’s “deeply alarmed” at continuing executions of demonstrators, ahead of pending reviews.

As heavy fighting continues in Sudan, UN humanitarians warned on Friday that more than one million people have now been forced to flee for their lives.

Nearly 15 months after Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, civilians are forced to live through an “unbearable routine”, amidst alarming levels of destruction and damage to their communities, said the deputy UN disarmament chief on Thursday.

Amid a massive increase in the number of people in Sudan impacted by more than a month of heavy fighting, the UN on Wednesday said that it needed a record near $3 billion to deliver life-saving aid to them.

The Myanmar military has imported at least $1 billion in arms and raw materials to manufacture weapons since generals staged their coup in February 2021, according to a new report released on Wednesday by the UN-appointed independent expert monitoring and investigating human rights abuses in the country.

Secretary-General António Guterres, marked the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia on Wednesday, urging UN Member States to protect the rights of LGBTQI+ people.