10 January 2014 – The United Nations human rights office today said it hopes that Myanmar’s decision to commute all death sentences to life imprisonment will lead to the full abolition of the death penalty in the country. President Thein Sein announced on 2 January that he would commute death sentences to life imprisonment and reduce some sentences on humanitarian grounds and to mark the 66th anniversary of independence of the country, marked on 4 January. “We warmly welcome the Myanmar Government’s Presidential Order,” the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, told journalists in Geneva.…
Author: UN News
6 January 2014 – The top United Nations official in Lebanon met today with senior leaders from the Government of Saudi Arabia to discuss a host of issues, including support for the Lebanese Armed Forces and the region-wide efforts to cope with the massive numbers of refugees sparked by the crisis in Syria. According to a UN spokesperson, the Secretary-General’s Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Derek Plumbly, visited Saudi Arabia today and met with senior Saudi officials, including the Second Deputy Prime Minister and the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. He discussed the support agenda for Lebanon and the region ahead…
10 January 2014 – United Nations independent human rights experts today urged the Spanish Government to reconsider its decision to extradite Alexsandr Pavlov, who oversaw security for a Kazakh businessman and prominent opposition leader, on grounds that he may be tortured or receive an unfair trial if extradited. “All countries must ensure that extradition does not put an individual at risk of persecution, torture, inhuman or degrading treatment,” the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Méndez, said. “Spain must adopt all necessary measures to safeguard Mr. Pavlov’s rights and physical integrity.” In a news release from the Office of…
10 January 2014 – The United Nations human rights office today expressed concern about a decision by the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs to declare illegal a coalition of 54 mainly non-Islamic civil society groups focused on human rights known by the acronym COMANGO. “We call upon Government of Malaysia to amend the Societies Act 1966, maximize the space for human rights activists and organisations to operate freely, and ensure that they can conduct their legitimate activities without intimidation or harassment,” the spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Rupert Colville, told journalists in Geneva. The COMANGO coalition…
6 January 2014 – Preparations for the long-sought international conference on Syria are moving ahead, with the United Nations reaching out to the more than 30 participating Member States and with a call on the Syrian opposition to name members of its delegations. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is sending invitations today to the list of invitees determined at the 20 December Trilateral meeting between Russia, the United States and the Joint Special Representative of the UN and the League of Arab States for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi. The conference, to be held in Switzerland, will also include the three other permanent members…
10 January 2014 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today called on the international community to increase its aid to Haiti on the fourth anniversary of the devastating earthquake that struck the impoverished country, noting progress already made in health and education, but warning that more needs to be done. “Haiti remains extremely vulnerable on many fronts,” he said in a message delivered to UN staff in Port au Prince, the capital, by his Special Representative Sandra Honoré. “145,000 people continue to live in make-shift camps. The country is structurally exposed to recurrent food crises. Haiti has the lowest level…
8 January 2014 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the General Assembly President John Ashe, today urged the bloc of developing countries known as the “Group of 77 and China” to work collectively towards reaching the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by the 2015 deadline. “Less than two years remain to the end of 2015,” Mr. Ban said at a ceremony at UN Headquarters where Fiji handed over the chairmanship of the Group to Bolivia. “In that time, we must do much more to achieve the MDGs, define a unified and universal post-2015 development agenda…
9 January 2014 – Timor-Leste, Asia-Pacific’s youngest country, today became the region’s first to launch a national campaign under the United Nations Zero Hunger Challenge, which seeks to ensure universal access to food in the face of looming threats such as climate change. “Hunger is an unforgivable development failure,” Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Secretary of the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), said at the launching ceremony in the National Parliament in Dili, the capital. “It is the single greatest obstacle to creating the inclusive, sustainable, and resilient future we want for all the people of…
7 January 2014 – The United Nations human rights office today expressed deep concern about what it said is disproportionate use of force by law enforcement officials responding to protesters in Cambodia, and urged authorities and security forces to exercise utmost restraint. We urge the Cambodian authorities to launch a prompt and thorough investigation and to ensure full accountability of members of security forces found to have used disproportionate and excessive force, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR), Rupert Colville, told journalists in Geneva. He stressed that policing of demonstrations must comply at all times with international human…
6 January 2014 – A senior United Nations official has welcomed a decision by Nepal’s top court against granting amnesty for serious human rights violations committed during a decade-long civil war calling it a “significant development for the thousands of victims of the conflict”.“I now call on the Government of Nepal to urgently implement this important decision, in the spirit of working towards genuine and lasting peace, and to respect the demand of the Nepalese people for justice,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay.The 2006 peace accord that ended the conflict in Nepal had agreed to establish…