World News

“This clearly also has damaging impact on prospects for peace and sustainable development for Israel, as well as the surrounding region”, she argued. Ms. Bachelet was briefing the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, in Geneva. She argued that, “no matter how long the road has been, ‘never-ending’ cannot be an acceptable description for any situation in which human rights are violated and abused.” “Only an end to the occupation can bring...

The UN food relief agency warned on Wednesday that it is running out of funds to continue providing food assistance to 13 million Yemenis. From January, eight million who are going hungry in Yemen will receive a reduced food ration, while five million others who are at immediate risk of slipping into famine, will remain on a full ration. “Desperate times call for desperate measures and we have to stretch our limited resources and prioritize, focusing on people who are in the most critical...

A long-term lack of funding for the UN’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, now represents an “existential” threat, its top official warned on Thursday. Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, said that chronic and drastic funding shortfalls could even precipitate its collapse. “Today, austerity has reached its limit and is impacting the quality of our services”, he said, highlighting that despite “rampant” poverty...

Despite having been “around aircraft for so long” due to her personal and family history, Rasha admits that she still gets a “heart flutter” every she watches a plane take to the skies. “It never gets ordinary being here”, she said. Like mother, like daughter Early last year, Rasha joined the World Food Programme’s (WFP) UNHAS team as an Aviation Assistant at Qamishli airport in Syria’s northeast. Prior to that, she’d worked in commercial aviation for seven years. The young woman’s...

The man, known as Anwar R, was charged with complicity in the torture of thousands of people between 2011 and 2012 in the Al-Khatib Branch of Syrian General Intelligence in the capital, Damascus.  Renewed spotlight on atrocities UN Human Rights High Commissioner, Michelle Bachelet said his trial cast a much-needed renewed spotlight on the torture and inhuman treatment countless Syrians suffered in detention facilities. “It is a landmark leap forward in the pursuit of truth, justice and...

Taliban leaders in Afghanistan are institutionalizing large scale and systematic gender-based discrimination and violence against women and girls, independent UN human rights experts warned on Monday. The group of around three dozen Human Rights Council-appointed experts highlighted a “wave of measures” such as barring women from returning to their jobs, requiring a male relative to accompany them in public spaces, prohibiting women from using public transport on their own, as well as...

Speaking by videoconference to journalists in New York, Mark Cutts said humanitarians had seen “some real horror scenes” in the last few days, especially in the northwest, where he said the camps were “bad at the best of times”. “Our humanitarian workers have been pulling people out from under collapsed tents”, he added. Mr. Cutts described a scenario where many people do not have shovels or other equipment to clear the snow, so they have been doing it with their bare hands, while children...

The attempted jailbreak began last Thursday with two coordinated car bomb attacks to free suspected ISIL members – sparking violence between ISIL fighters and Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Forces (SDF) which control the prison, including in residential areas of Al-Hasekeh. “We are particularly disturbed by reports that a significant number of boys, possibly several hundred, are held there and are extremely concerned for their safety and well-being”, OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told...

With no shifts in the frontlines in almost two years, the UN Special Envoy for Syria warnedt he Security Council about “a strategic stalemate” in the nearly 11-year-old war. For Geir Pedersen, despite the continued violence and suffering, it is clear that “a military solution remains an illusion”and no combatant can determine the outcome of the conflict. Mr. Pederson also said that Syrians continue to suffer deeply. Just last month, they had to deal with airstrikes, more crossfire and...

Boys and girls caught up in intense fighting which raged for six days around a besieged prison in northeast Syria, need protection and assistance, the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, said on Thursday. ISIL fighters launched an assault on the Ghwayran/Sinai’i detention centre in the city of Al-Hasekeh last week, in an attempt to free some of their counterparts, sparking fighting with Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Forces (SDF) who control the facility. More than 5,000 men are being held inside...