As violence mounts between Israelis and Palestinians, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Friday called for an end to the “illogic of escalation”, appealing for leaders to urgently work to resolve their decades-long conflict. 

The UN child rights committee on Friday commended Switzerland for swiftly granting asylum to four Kurdish children and their mother, who faced deportation after fleeing Syria, adding that it showed how controversial decisions could be effectively appealed.

Three independent UN-appointed human rights experts on Thursday demanded that the Spanish Government thoroughly investigate an alleged spying operation against leaders and activists from the Catalonia region, in the wake of a failed bid for independence six years ago. 

A UN body investigating discrimination complaints lodged by Qatar against the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia concluded its work following the resolution of these disputes, according to an announcement on Thursday. 

Two UN experts commended the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday for considering the admission of athletes from the Russian Federation and Belarus in sports competitions as “neutral” contestants. 

Top UN-appointed independent rights experts on Tuesday called on the authorities in Mali to launch an immediate probe into the mass execution of civilians last year, allegedly by Government forces and the Russia-based private military contractor, the Wagner Group.

The international community must promptly deny the legitimacy of Myanmar’s military junta, the UN-appointed independent expert on the situation of human rights in the country said briefing at UN Headquarters in New York on Tuesday, launching a critical report as the coup enters its third year on Wednesday.

Online hate speech might seem like an unstoppable tide, but strategies are being employed by governments, civil society, and individuals, to fight back. A new UN Podcasts series, UNiting Against Hate, explains how this dangerous phenomenon is being tackled worldwide.

Top UN-appointed independent rights investigators on Monday urged the authorities to share more information on mass graves and other serious crimes linked to the country’s civil war.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday called for Member States to urge the military leadership in Myanmar to respect the will and needs of its own people, as risks to regional stability grow.

Online hate speech is a growing, worrying phenomenon that puts lives at risks. In the second of three feature stories based on the new UN Podcasts series, UNiting Against Hate, we focus on the national strategies Costa Rica and the Czech Republic have put in place to tackle the issue.

Whilst hate speech is nothing new, it has arguably been super-charged by the internet, which has allowed lies, conspiracies, and threats to instantly spread around the world. In a short series of features, based on the new UN Podcasts series, UNiting Against Hate, we look at the effects, and possible solutions, to this growing problem.

Antisemitism has been described as the canary in the coal mine of freedom, and with hateful bigots and dangerous conspiracy theorists now finding willing audiences online, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Saturday said, “we must pledge to speak out wherever we witness hate and to stand up for human rights and dignity for all.”

There is a general recognition across Venezuela’s political and social spectrum of the need for reform, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Saturday, wrapping up a trip to the country during which, among others, he heard complaints of arbitrary detention and torture. 

At a UN ceremony to mark the Holocaust on Friday, Secretary-General António Guterres warned that antisemitism, hate speech, and misinformation are ever-present, 90 years on from the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany.

Nearly two years on from Myanmar’s brutal military coup against the democratically-elected government, the country has sunk deeper than ever into crisis, undergoing a  wholesale regression in human rights, UN human rights chief Volker Türk said on Friday.

Racism in the United Kingdom is “structural, institutional and systemic”, independent UN human rights experts said on Friday, warning that people of African descent in the country continue to encounter discrimination and erosion of their fundamental rights.

This year, the theme of the UN Holocaust Remembrance Day, marked on Friday, is “home and belonging”, two concepts that were systematically ripped away from Jewish citizens, once the Nazi Party took control of Germany in 1933.

The court order closing down Russia’s oldest human rights organization, the Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), is “yet another blow to human rights and civic space in the country”, said a Spokesperson for the UN rights office, OHCHR on Thursday.

Fewer victims of people trafficking are being identified, even as the COVID-19 pandemic and other crises are increasing their vulnerability, a new report released on Tuesday by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has found.