Volker Türk said he had been “following developments closely” in Israel, where parliamentarians supporting the hard-line nationalist Government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu passed a bill on Monday which in effect strips the Supreme Court of its power to block Government decisions. Opposition parties boycotted the vote which came after seven months of protests which…
The 54-member body, which is one of the six main pillars of the UN system, elected Paula Narváez Ojeda of Chile to the top seat. It also elected as Vice-Presidents, Akan Rakhmetullin (Kazakhstan), Ivan Šimonović (Croatia) and Robert Rae (Canada), representing the Asia-Pacific, Eastern European, and Western European and other regional groups, respectively. The…
The trend indicates that climate litigation is becoming an integral part of the international push for greater climate action and justice. The Global Climate Litigation Report: 2023 Status Review, is based on a review of cases up to the end of 2022, compiled by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, which partnered…
Koketso Mukubani now works as a Community Linkage Officer for the UN Office on Drugs and Crime-supported South African Network of People who use Drugs. The UNODC staffer spoke to UN News ahead of World Hepatitis Day on 28 July about receiving his diagnosis during a needle exchange outreach programmme, in which people who use drugs…
Melting ice and glaciers and rising sea levels threaten more socio-economic disruption in future, according to the agency’s latest State of the Climate report for the region. The mean temperature over Asia for 2022 was the second or third warmest on record and was about 0.72 degrees Celsius (°C) above the 1991–2020 average, which was…
In a news release issued by his Office, Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, denounced “constant shrinkage” in Cambodia’s democratic space in recent years, which he said is undermining citizen’s fundamental freedoms and their right to participate in the public square. In the lead up to the elections, Cambodia’s National Election Committee disqualified…
The task of transferring a million barrels of oil from the stricken supertanker Yemen, will take some 19 days – preventing what would be the fifth largest spill in history, were the rusting tanker to break apart. But this process will not end with the oil transfer, because the FSO Safer will continue to pose…
According to news reports, the officers seized President Mohamed Bazoum and blockaded his residence in the capital Niamey on Wednesday, leading the African Union Commission Chair, to describe their actions as “tantamount to an attempted coup d’etat” – although there have been no reports so far of gunfire. The would be plotters have reportedly not…
UNESCO’s report on technology in education urges countries to carefully consider how technology is used in schools. It emphasises the need for a “human-centered vision” where digital technology serves as a tool rather than taking precedence. Speaking to UN News, UNESCO’s Manos Antoninis also warned of the danger of data leaks in educational tech, as…
The Council meeting was convened following the missile strikes on Sunday which damaged the centuries-old Transfiguration Cathedral, the first and foremost Orthodox church in the historic city. Other landmarks in the city centre, a protected World Heritage Site, were also damaged in the attack, which killed one person and injured several others. Culture under fire…
