Rights chief urges Russia to end crackdown as journalist detentions reach all-time high

adminMay 7, 2024September 20, 202404 mins

Volker Türk said he was concerned by the increasing number of journalists charged, convicted and jailed for their independent reporting, in what appears to be an intensification of a crackdown on dissenting voices. He described the continuous attacks on free speech and the criminalization of independent journalism in Russia as “very troubling”. “The intensification of the crackdown on journalists’ independent…

Afghanistan: UN forced to make ‘appalling choice’ following ban on women nationals

Afghanistan: Taliban’s crackdown on women over ‘bad hijab’ must end

adminFebruary 2, 2024September 18, 202406 mins

The incidents, which have surged since early January, are purportedly linked to violations of the Taliban’s stringent dress code for women. The Human Rights Council-appointed experts called on de facto authorities to comply with Afghanistan’s human rights obligations, including under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. The Taliban crackdown…

World News in Brief: COVID risk still high worldwide, massive Congo flood displacement, concern over Sri Lanka drugs crackdown

adminJanuary 12, 2024September 18, 202407 mins

The virus is still circulating globally but relatively few countries are following infections closely, meaning the actual threat due to the coronavirus and its variants could be anything from two to 19 times higher than what is being reported to WHO. The agency’s COVID focal point, Dr Maria Van Kerhove, told journalists in Geneva that…

Viet Nam: UN rights office condemns crackdown on climate activists

adminSeptember 29, 2023September 16, 202403 mins

On Thursday, Hoang Thi Minh Hong, an acclaimed climate activist and former World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) employee, was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $4,100 after being convicted for tax evasion. Her trial lasted only three hours, and access to family and defence counsel were limited throughout her detention. Moreover, the…

Crackdown order against fake, unregistered, smuggled drugs

adminSeptember 27, 2023September 16, 202403 mins

—File photo The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has been mandated to crack down on fake, unregistered and smuggled drugs. In this regard, the caretaker Federal Minister of Health says that the sale, storage and distribution of all such medicines should be stopped, and the scope of monitoring should be increased in the market….

Venezuela continues crackdown on dissenters, UN rights experts warn

adminSeptember 25, 2023September 16, 202405 mins

Marta Valiñas, Chair of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, presented its latest report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, which covers the period from January 2020 to August this year. The report, which was published last week, focused on two areas: the various “repression mechanisms” used by the State, and the…

UN rights experts ‘deeply alarmed’ at continuing executions of Iran protesters

UN rights experts condemn Iran’s protest crackdown

adminSeptember 19, 2023September 16, 202405 mins

Protests erupted throughout the country on Saturday marking the one-year anniversary of the 22-year-old Iranian woman’s death after she was detained by Iran’s morality police for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly. Crackdown on protesters Iranian authorities briefly detained Ms. Amini’s father on Saturday and beefed-up security nationwide to deter protesters from taking to the…

Strict media crackdown in Occupied Kashmir

adminAugust 23, 2023September 15, 202404 mins

File photo A news website based in India’s occupied Jammu and Kashmir has closed its office in Srinagar after a tough media crackdown. Two days ago, the website and social media accounts of the news portal ‘The Kashmir Walla’ were also blocked by the authorities. In this regard, the staff of the news website said…

Ban on beauty parlors is new crackdown on women’s rights, UN

adminJuly 5, 2023September 14, 202402 mins

Courtesy: The Independent. The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan has condemned the Taliban’s ban on beauty parlors and called the move a new crackdown on women’s rights, calling on the Taliban to immediately reverse the decision. The UN mission says the closure of women’s beauty parlors is a crackdown on women’s entrepreneurship and job opportunities….

Tunisia must ‘change course’ amid media crackdown: UN rights chief

adminJune 23, 2023September 14, 202403 mins

“It is troubling to see Tunisia, a country that once held so much hope, regressing and losing the human rights gains of the last decade,” Mr. Türk said, urging the country to “change course”. The UN human rights office (OHCHR) said that over the past three months, the Tunisian authorities have used security and counter-terrorism…