Articles

Mohammad Ghobadlou, 23, who reportedly had a mental health condition, was arrested in September 2022 for running over a policeman and killing him during a demonstration near the capital, Tehran. Thousands of people nationwide took to the street after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody earlier that month. She had been detained by Iran’s morality police who accused her of wearing her headscarf improperly. Mr. Ghobadlou was charged with “corruption on earth” and sentenced to death...

23 January 2024Peace and Security Many of the world’s top diplomats are due to meet in the UN Security Council chamber at 2 PM New York time, to debate the deepening crisis in the Gaza Strip and the whole Middle East, against the backdrop of Israel’s unrelenting military operation, mounting death toll and escalating global calls for an immediate ceasefire. We’ll have full live coverage here. Video feed of the Council meeting, expected to start at 2 PM. Secretary-General António...

Today, some 14.6 million people in the country need humanitarian assistance – or 40 per cent of the population – and 6.3 million have fled beyond its borders as refugees. “We must stay the course” with the people of Ukraine, Mr. Griffiths told journalists in Geneva, adding that “no place” had been untouched by the war “and the wave of attacks that began just before the new year”. Amid “constant bombardment” along the front line with Russia and in Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, Mr...

In conflict zones across the world, UN humanitarian workers work under extreme conditions, but it is hard to exaggerate the risks they are facing in Gaza, where hospitals, schools, and refugee camps are not immune to the threats of bombardment. Evacuation orders continue to be issued, pushing more people south in fear for their safety. Many roads are becoming impassable as more informal sites continue to spring up. In addition, the cold winter season, with strong winds and torrential...

31 December 2023Law and Crime Prevention The UN Secretary-General praised the hard work of judges and staff of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which closed on Sunday following efforts to try those responsible for a 2005 attack that killed 22 people, including former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and injured 226 people. Established by Security Council resolution 1757 in 2007, the Special Tribunal’s jurisdiction also extended to other attacks that were judicially determined to...

4 December 2023Human Rights The UN team investigating crimes committed by Da’esh terrorist group has issued its latest report documenting the terrorist group’s atrocities in Iraq, laying the groundwork for future prosecutions. Christian Ritscher, head of the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh – otherwise known as the Islamic State group or ISIL – outlined to ambassadors in the Security Council on Monday a comprehensive assessment detailing...

Global perspective Human stories Palestine refugee children on their way to school in UNRWA’s Khan Younis camp, built on the stand dunes of the crowded Gaza Strip in 1963. Why 29 November? On that day in 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on the partition of Palestine. At the founding commemoration of the international day, the then-UN Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim expressed a view echoed by successive secretaries-general that “events of these last years...

The annual observation on 29 November marks the day in 1947 that the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on partitioning Palestine into two independent States, one Arab and one Jewish. The 1948 displacement of Palestinians from land that became Israel – known as the Nakba (“catastrophe” in Arabic) – is the subject of an exhibition currently on display at UN Headquarters in New York. Barefoot and pushing their belongings in prams and carts, Arab families leave the coastal town of...

24 November 2023Humanitarian Aid The United Nations was able to scale up delivery of humanitarian assistance into and across Gaza during the humanitarian pause that went into effect on Friday following an agreement reached this week between Israel and Hamas. Gaza has a population of over two million, with the UN agency that assists Palestine refugee, UNRWA, hosting more than a million displaced people in 156 of its installations across the enclave. The UN humanitarian affairs office...

21 November 2023Peace and Security A “tragic…entirely avoidable surge” in child deaths is expected in Gaza where some 160 youngsters are already being killed every day, UN humanitarians warned on Tuesday, after six weeks of aerial bombardment by Israeli forces in response to the 7 October Hamas terror attacks on southern Israel that claimed 1,200 lives and some 240 hostages. “About 160 children are killed every day; that’s one every 10 minutes,” said UN World Health Organization (WHO)...