Category: Human Rights

Richard Bennett, the Special Rapporteur monitoring human rights in Afghanistan – who serves independently under a mandate of the Human Rights Council and is not a UN staff member – told the General Assembly the human rights situation in the country “continues to deteriorate with few grounds for optimism.” He warned of intensifying gender persecution, […]

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced last Friday that it will stop distributing payments for essential food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) starting November 1 if the federal government is still shut down. Suspending these payments would force tens of millions to cut back on food, undermining their human rights. Twenty-five states […]

Following the signing of Colombia’s 2016 Peace Agreement, more than 13,000 former FARC combatants laid down their arms within a year, surrendering nearly 9,000 weapons, 38,000 tons of explosives, and millions of rounds of ammunition. Mr. Jenča noted that despite ongoing challenges, the implementation of the agreement has significantly improved security and trust among communities. […]

When the former Afghan Women’s National Football Team, now known as Afghan Women United, took the field this week in Morocco for their first games in four years, they didn’t just play a match; they returned from exile, from dispossession, and from a system that sought to erase them. Their return to compete after the Taliban banned […]

Nearly 90 journalists have been physically assaulted in Serbia over the past year amid widespread anti-government protests, prompting international condemnation and a formal reprimand from the European Parliament. Violence Against Media Amid Political Unrest According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), at least 89 journalists have been physically attacked in Serbia since November 2024, when the […]

Briefing at UN Headquarters in New York – the first time the mission has presented findings to the General Assembly – chairperson Sara Hossain said that conditions have deteriorated since the Israeli airstrikes, which reportedly killed over 1,000 people. According to Iranian Government figures, 276 civilians, including 38 children and 102 women, were among the […]

(São Paulo) – Police have failed to take crucial investigative steps to determine the circumstances of the killing of at least 121 people, including 4 police officers, during a raid in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on October 28, 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. The raid affected low-income, primarily Black neighborhoods.  Police did not preserve crime […]

On 6 October 2025, the EU and Denmark co-organised a Senior officials meeting (SOM) on the Sahel and Lake Chad.  The objective of the meeting, which was held in hybrid format from Dakar (Senegal) and hosted 164 participants was twofold:  to validate a shared diagnosis of issues at stake in the region (Benin, Burkina Faso, […]

More than 60 people have reportedly been killed in the continuing series of attacks since early September “in circumstances that find no justification in international law,” Volker Türk said in a statement. He urged the US to halt its “unacceptable” operations and take measures to prevent the “extrajudicial killing of people aboard these boats, whatever […]

Since the powerful paramilitary group made a major incursion into the city last week, the UN human rights office has received “horrendous accounts of summary executions, mass killings, rapes, attacks against humanitarian workers, looting, abductions and forced displacement,” said Seif Magango, spokesperson for the UN human rights office (OHCHR). Speaking from Nairobi to journalists in […]