Today, more than 100 armed conflicts are raging worldwide, devastating communities, winding back development, and leading to grave violations of human rights. Ranging from severe beatings to sexual humiliation and rape, torture is widely used as a means of war. And often, torture involves the use of tools or instruments,...
In a statement on Friday, the experts said that emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence-based biometric surveillance systems, are increasingly being used “in sensitive contexts”, without individuals’ knowledge or consent ‘Urgent red lines’ must be drawn “Urgent and strict regulatory red lines are needed for technologies that claim to perform emotion or...
The US National Hurricane Center acts as WMO’s Regional Specialized Meteorological hub, based in Miami, Florida. There is a 40 per cent chance of a near-normal season, 30 per cent possibility of an “above-normal season”, and also 30 per cent of a below-normal season, according to forecasters with the Climate...
Alice Edwards, who is officially known as the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, said she was “distressed by the deteriorating state of Mr. Navalny’s health and the apparent lack of satisfactory diagnosis and medical treatment”. ‘A form of torture’ In a statement also backed...
The urgent call from the ten Special Rapporteurs and members of the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls, came in response to an announcement by the Taliban-appointed Supreme Court in favour of punishments including stoning, flogging and burying people under a wall. Women most vulnerable The de facto...
“Despite being charged with terrorism, they were reportedly arrested for resisting forced evictions in the name of the NEOM project and the construction of a 170km linear city called The Line,” the UN experts said. ‘Smart city’ project NEOM is a futuristic urban development project backed by the Saudi Public...
During the visit, the Mechanism visited Washington DC, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York City saying in a press release, that it had been pleased to learn about various promising initiatives that authorities have developed to combat racial discrimination affecting people of African descent. Urging accountability and support...
“We are alarmed about widespread mental health issues and accounts of escalating suicides among women and girls,” they said in a joint statement. “This extreme situation of institutionalized gender-based discrimination in Afghanistan is unparalleled anywhere in the world.” ‘Extreme’ discrimination Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, de...
The 45-year-old Palestinian died in his prison cell on Tuesday morning following a nearly three-month hunger strike. He had been protesting Israel’s widespread policy of arbitrarily detaining Palestinians in “abhorrent conditions” and in violation of fair trial guarantees. The call for greater accountability came from the independent expert, or Special...
The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) sounded the alarm after 36,000 people of Haitian origin were deported during the first three months of the year, according to figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Some 90 per cent were deported from the Dominican Republic. Violations...
They strongly condemned the execution this week of Tangaraju s/o Suppiah, who was convicted of conspiring to traffic cannabis from Malaysia to the country in 2013. Fair trial concerns Mr. Suppiah, a 46-year-old Tamil from Singapore, was hanged on Tuesday despite claims that he had not been provided with adequate...
“There has been an ongoing and unchecked tragedy: the forced eviction of Palestinians from their homes,” they said in a joint statement. “Israel’s transfer of its own population into the occupied territory confirms a deliberate intention to colonize the territory it occupies, a practice strictly prohibited by international humanitarian law,”...