Middle East

Human rights defenders in Afghanistan report that they are now enduring a “climate of fear”, threats, and becoming increasingly desperate over conditions in the country, an independent UN expert said on Wednesday. Stating that “the threat is very real”, Mary Lawlor, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders, called for an urgent coordinated response from the international community. “Defenders tell me of direct threats, including gendered threats against women, of beatings...

Masami Ogata is a survivor of Minamata Disease, a debilitating illness caused by industrial mercury poisoning, which originated in the Japanese town of the same name in the 1950s. As a UN conference on preventing future poisoning outbreaks gets underway, we hear Mr. Ogata’s story. As a storyteller at the Minamata Disease Municipal Museum, Mr. Ogata helps to keep alive the memory of what is considered to be one of the most serious Japanese pollution incidents of the Twentieth Century. The...

Geir Pedersen reported on the sixth session of the Committee’s so-called “Small Body”, which he convened last week in Geneva. The hope was that the 45 men and women – who represent the Syrian government, opposition and civil society – would draft a text that would help support a peaceful future for their country after more than a decade of war. Working mechanism needed However, they were unable to move from submitting and discussing initial drafts to developing a productive textual...

Independent UN human rights experts on Monday strongly condemned the decision by the Israeli Minister of Defence to designate six Palestinian human rights and civil society groups, as terrorist organisations. In a joint statement, the experts called the decision “a frontal attack on the Palestinian human rights movement, and on human rights everywhere.” “Silencing their voices is not what a democracy adhering to well-accepted human rights and humanitarian standards would do”, they add...

The process of drafting a new constitution for Syria has been “a big disappointment” UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir Pedersen concluded on Friday. Following the end of discussions in Geneva, a consensus on how to move forward was not achieved, he added. The drafting process between Government and opposition Co-Chairs of the Syrian Constitutional Committee (Small Drafting Body) and civil society began on Monday and was led by Mr. Pedersen. The aim was to produce a text that would help...

Israel has been urged to either release or charge five Palestinian prisoners currently on hunger strike in Israeli prisons. Grave concerns have been expressed for the lives of the prisoners by UN independent rights experts, who on Thursday, called on the Israeli Government to completely end the “unlawful practice “ of administrative detention. In a statement, the experts said that Israel continues to detain more than 500 Palestinians – including six children – “without charges, without...

Four children – three boys and a girl – were killed on Monday morning while travelling to school in northwest Syria, along with a teacher, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday. UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Ted Chaiban, said in a statement that they were victims of an attack on a market in Ariha, south of Idlib. The governorate is the last rebel held enclave in the country. According to news reports, a total of ten people were killed in the...

Political stagnation is “fuelling tensions, instability and a deepening sense of hopelessness”, the top UN official working towards peace in the Middle East warned the Security Council on Tuesday. “We should have no illusions about the current state of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”, Special Coordinator Tor Wennesland said, describing a situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) that continues to deteriorate, with no progress towards a two-State solution. Cycle of...