Month: July 2023
Pride Month: UN’s transgender rights campaign goes global
“If we want a healthy world, then it needs to be a kind and welcoming one too,” said Benedict Phillips, the UNAIDS Director of Communications and Global Advocacy. That means ensuring all communities are included, especially marginalized groups, he said. However, in many countries, stigma, discrimination, and criminalization tend to make transgender people invisible, with extreme…
Read MoreTime to end gender-based violence, boost role of women in politics, public life
Speaking to the Council’s annual meeting in Geneva on protecting the rights of women and girls, the UN High Commissioner said it was an urgent task, and there needed to be zero-tolerance of gender-based violence. He highlighted the alarming reality that female human rights defenders, women journalists, and those in public office and political decision-making…
Read MoreFirst Person: A Thai police trainer’s ‘passion’ for fighting the SE Asia drug trade
The trainee police officers are part of a network of law enforcement specialists in Thailand, but also across the region, who are cooperating across borders to stem trafficking operations by international crime syndicates. They are collaborating under the border liaison office (BLO) network, supported by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Lt. Colonel…
Read More‘Generations of Haitians’ at risk, warns Guterres, calling for international force to help quell gang violence
The UN chief expressed deep concern at the extreme vulnerability faced by the Haitian people – especially women and girls – because of brutally violent and “predatory” armed gangs, like those encircling the capital, blocking main roads and controlling access to water, food, health care. “I condemn in the strongest possible terms the widespread sexual violence…
Read MoreFrom seeds to solar power in Madagascar: A UN Resident Coordinator blog
“Since my arrival in Madagascar as the UN Resident Coordinator at the end of 2020, the country has been hit by unprecedented cyclones and experienced the most severe drought in 40 years. Coupled with other extreme weather events, the drought caused widespread hunger and pushed thousands into near famine-like conditions. In the south of the…
Read MoreMyanmar: Military’s obstruction of humanitarian aid could be international crime
The chief of OHCHR’s Myanmar team, James Rodehaver, explained that since their February 2021 coup, the country’s military rulers have been instilling a “climate of fear” to subjugate the civilian population, restricting aid access and using “all means” at their disposal to clamp down on civil society. Brutal tactics He said the military’s tactics had…
Read MoreUN rights office calls on France to address ‘deep issues’ of racism in policing
In a statement released in Geneva on Friday, OHCHR Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani expressed concern over the death of 17-year-old Nahel M on Tuesday, after he was shot dead driving away from a traffic stop in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre. According to news reports, at least 875 people were arrested in major cities around the…
Read MoreEastern DR Congo: Health system at breaking point warns WHO
Speaking from Kinshasa, Dr. Jorge Castilla, WHO’s Senior Emergency Officer, told journalists at the regular briefing in Geneva there had been a major increase in displacement due to ongoing violence fuelled by armed groups, leaving around 7.4 million in need of health assistance. Disease and displacement Since March 2022, almost three million people have been…
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