Category Archives: United Nations

Peru violated rights of 13-year-old girl repeatedly raped by father, UN rules

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Authorities denied pregnant Indigenous girl her legal right to an abortion and ‘re-victimised’ her, UN child rights committee says

Peru violated the rights of a 13-year-old girl who had been repeatedly raped by her father by denying her an abortion after she became pregnant, the UN has ruled.

The United Nations child rights committee found this week that the Peruvian authorities had violated the rights to health and life of the girl, known by the pseudonym Camila, by failing to provide her with information and access to legal and safe abortion.

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Aid agencies raise alarm as solo children cross Chad border to flee Sudan fighting

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Unicef says ‘more and more unaccompanied children’ among thousands of refugees streaming across 1,000km-long border

Hundreds of unaccompanied children have crossed the border from Sudan into Chad in recent weeks as fighting separates families and forces minors to make the arduous journey to safety without their parents.

Humanitarian workers say “more and more” children are arriving alone in the neighbouring country, to which more than 100,000 refugees, about 60% of them under-18s, have fled since fighting erupted between rival military factions in mid-April.

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Romania recalls ambassador who allegedly compared monkey to African diplomats

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UN’s Africa group ‘not prepared to participate’ with Dragos Viorel Tigau after alleged comment in Kenya

The Africa group within the United Nations said it would never work again with the Romanian ambassador to Kenya in certain forums after he allegedly compared them to a monkey while attending a meeting in Nairobi.

The group also demanded an unconditional and public apology to the people of Africa.

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China concerns prompt US move to rejoin Unesco

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Return of US ends decade-long dispute sparked by agency’s move to admit Palestine as a member

The UN’s cultural and scientific agency, Unesco, has announced that the US plans to rejoin – and pay more than $600m (£477m) in back dues – after a decade-long dispute sparked by the organisation’s move to include Palestine as a member.

US officials say the decision to return was motivated by concern that China is filling the gap left by Washington in Unesco policymaking, notably in setting standards for artificial intelligence and technology education around the world.

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Russia floundering in ‘mud of lies’ over Kakhovka dam destruction, Ukraine tells UN

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Security council meeting discusses disaster as US, UK and French representatives call for an investigation

Russia’s UN envoy was accused of floundering in a “mud of lies” after he claimed at an emergency session of the security council that Ukraine destroyed Kakhovka dam in a “war crime”.

Sergiy Kyslytsya, the Ukraine envoy to the UN, said it was typical of Russia to blame the victim for its own crimes, pointing out Russia has been in control of the dam for more than a year and it was physically impossible to blow it up by shelling. He said the dam was mined by the Russian occupiers and they blew it up. He accused Russia of “floundering again in the mud of lies”.

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Ukrainian dam collapse ‘no immediate risk’ to Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant

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But IAEA says damage to Nova Kakhovka dam raises long-term concerns for power station’s future

The collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam and the draining of the reservoir behind it does not pose an immediate safety threat to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant further upstream, but will have long-term implications for its future, according to Ukrainian and UN experts.

The Ukrainian nuclear energy corporation, Energoatom, put out a statement on the Telegram social media platform saying the situation at the plant, the biggest nuclear power station in Europe, was “under control”.

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UN experts express ‘grave concern’ over detention of Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong

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Communication sent to Beijing government says media mogul’s prosecutions relate to his criticism of China

A group of UN experts have expressed “grave concern” over the arrest and detention of Jimmy Lai, a former media mogul in Hong Kong who has been charged with violating the territory’s national security law.

In a joint communication sent to the Chinese government, the experts from the UN working group on arbitrary detention and several special rapporteurs focused on human rights said Lai’s arrest and multiple prosecutions related to “his criticism of the Chinese government and his support for democracy in Hong Kong”.

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Ugandan president signs anti-LGBTQ+ law with death penalty for same-sex acts

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Global outcry over Museveni’s assent to draconian new anti-gay law, condemned as a ‘permission slip for hate and dehumanisation’


Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, has signed into law the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ+ bill, which allows the death penalty for homosexual acts. The move immediately drew widespread international outrage as well as condemnation from many Ugandans.

Early on Monday, the speaker of the Ugandan parliament, Anita Annet Among, released a statement on social media confirming Museveni had assented to the law first passed by MPs in March. It imposes the death penalty or life imprisonment for certain same-sex acts, up to 20 years in prison for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities”, and anyone convicted of “attempted aggravated homosexuality” faces a 14-year sentence.

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Sudan army calls on former soldiers to re-enlist as fighting persists through ceasefire

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Army leader Abdel-Fatteh al-Burhan has asked the UN to replace its envoy to the country

Sudan’s army has asked the United Nations to change its envoy to the country, as it calls on reservists and retired soldiers to re-enlist amid the ongoing conflict with a rival paramilitary force.

Friday’s call to former soldiers to present themselves at their nearest military base comes days into a shaky truce between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

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UK funding cuts to east Africa ‘insulting and shortsighted’, say aid organisations

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NGOs dismayed at reduction in Britain’s contribution as crisis-hit region faces challenges from drought, rising prices and conflict

The UK has been accused of taking the “insulting and shortsighted” decision to cut humanitarian aid to east Africa at a time of chronic drought, conflict and rising food prices.

At a United Nations pledging conference in New York on Wednesday, which the UK is co-chairing, Andrew Mitchell, the UK’s international development minister, announced a humanitarian aid package to the region of £143m.

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Russian mercenaries behind slaughter of 500 in Mali village, UN report finds

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Report implicates Wagner group fighters in Moura atrocity, including the torture and rape of civilians

First came a single helicopter, flying low over the marshes around the river outside the village, then the rattle of automatic fire scattered the crowds gathered for the weekly market.

Next came more helicopters, dropping troops off around the homes and cattle pens. The soldiers moved swiftly, ordering men into the centre of the village, gunning down those trying to escape. When some armed militants fired back, the shooting intensified. Soon at least 20 civilians and a dozen alleged members of an al-Qaida affiliated Islamist group, were dead.

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Developing country voices will be excluded at UN plastic talks, say NGOs

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Limits on numbers at Paris summit mean some of those ‘most needing to be heard’ will not be in attendance

Scientists and NGOs have accused the UN’s environment programme (Unep) of locking out those “most needing to be heard” from upcoming negotiations in Paris aimed at halting plastic waste.

Last-minute restrictions to the numbers of NGOs attending what the head of Unep described as the “most important multilateral environmental deal” in a decade will exclude people from communities in developing countries harmed by dumping and burning of plastic waste as well as marginalised waste pickers, who are crucial to recycling, from fully participating, they said.

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UN labour rights watchdog facing backlash over Qatar conference nomination

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Exclusive: Qatari minister expected to take presidency of ILO event despite bribery investigation

The UN’s labour rights watchdog, the International Labour Organization (ILO), is facing a backlash over the nomination of Qatar to chair its flagship annual conference despite a police investigation into alleged bribery of EU lawmakers by the Gulf state.

The Guardian has learned that Qatar’s minister of labour, Ali bin Saeed bin Samikh Al Marri, is expected to take the presidency of the ILO’s international labour conference in Geneva in June, an annual event intended to advance global standards on workers’ rights.

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Israel treats Palestinian territories like colonies, says UN rapporteur

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Francesca Albanese says Israel is maintaining occupation to get as much land as possible for Jewish people

Israel treats the Palestinian territories as its colonies, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied territories has said on her first visit to London since her appointment last year.

Francesca Albanese, an Italian lawyer and human rights academic, has faced calls to resign by Israeli government ministers, such as Amichai Chikli, who accused her of “spewing hatred and antisemitism”, and Zionist groups have described her as biased.

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‘The forever prisoner’: Abu Zubaydah’s drawings expose the US’s depraved torture policy

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Exclusive: For 21 years, the detainee has been in US custody without charge, tortured and sexually humiliated, with no prospect for release

• Warning: the images and descriptions of torture in this article are extremely graphic

A detainee held in the US prison camp at Guantánamo Bay who was used as a human guinea pig in the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program has produced the most comprehensive and detailed account yet seen of the brutal techniques to which he was subjected.

Abu Zubaydah has created a series of 40 drawings that chronicle the torture he endured in a number of CIA dark sites between 2002 and 2006 and at Guantánamo Bay. In the absence of a full official accounting of the torture program, which the CIA and the FBI have labored for years to keep secret, the images give a unique and searing insight into a grisly period in US history.

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US must tackle police brutality against Black people head-on, UN experts say

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Historic two-week tour of US ends with call for nationwide commitment to address racial discrimination in dealings with law

The US must move beyond piecemeal reform and slogan-making and tackle the ongoing scourge of police brutality and law enforcement’s discrimination against Black people, a United Nations mission has concluded at the end of a historic two-week tour of the country.

UN experts completed their first official visit to the US as part of a system of global inquiries set up by the human rights council after the police murder of George Floyd in May 2020. As they ended their tour on Friday in Washington DC, the experts called for a nationwide commitment to address discrimination suffered by Black Americans in their daily dealings with the law.

A call for an end to racial profiling in policing.

A dramatic reduction in the use of solitary confinement in US jails and prisons, and the total abolition of isolated incarceration for children under 18.

Passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act which tackles racial bias and excessive use of force but which has stalled in Congress.

An end to stereotyping of Black women and girls as angry and “aged up”.

Rooting out of white supremacist law enforcement officers to ensure that they no longer wear the badge.

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Child marriage in decline – but will take 300 years to eliminate

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UN children’s agency welcomes drop in number of underage brides, but warns 12 million girls still getting married each year

The number of child marriages is declining worldwide, but at too slow a pace for any hope of eliminating the practice this century, Unicef, the UN children’s agency, has said.

In a new report, Unicef tentatively welcomed the reduction but warned that it was nowhere close to meeting its sustainable development goal of ridding the world of the practice by 2030.

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Aid agencies in Sudan plead with factions to allow supplies to reach needy

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Six trucks of humanitarian supplies looted while airstrikes in Khartoum undermine ceasefire

Aid agencies are pleading with battling factions in Sudan to allow humanitarian assistance to reach the needy, after six trucks of humanitarian supplies were looted and airstrikes in Khartoum undermined a new ceasefire.

Martin Griffiths, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, said on Wednesday he was seeking assurances that would allow for movement of staff and supplies.

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UN rights experts denounce planned Saudi executions of megacity opponents

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Three members of Huwaitat tribe face execution, reportedly for opposition to Neom project

UN rights experts have denounced the pending execution of three members of a Saudi tribe, reportedly in connection with their opposition to a planned Red Sea megacity.

Three members of the Huwaitat tribe, which inhabits the desert area in north-western Saudi Arabia where the crown prince Mohammed bin Salman’s $500bn (£400bn) futuristic megacity is under construction, face the “imminent risk of execution”, more than a dozen independent experts warned.

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Medics in Sudan warn of crisis as health system near collapse

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Critical shortages of basic goods including water, and bodies piling in streets creating ‘environmental catastrophe’

Sudanese medics have described seeing piles of bodies in the streets of the capital, Khartoum, people drinking polluted water, and doctors working under bombardments as the battle between the country’s two warring generals continues despite a threadbare ceasefire.

Intense explosions and shelling were audible in Omdurman, Khartoum’s twin city across the Nile, on Monday and there were reports of further explosions and clashes in the Bahri and Kafouri districts of Khartoum North. In the south of Khartoum, residents reported that the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fired anti-aircraft missiles in response to bombardments by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF).

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