High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein announced today the appointment of Bacre Ndiaye from Senegal, Luc Côté from Canada and Fatimata M’Baye from Mauritania as international experts on the situation in the Kasaï region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mandated by the Human Rights Council.
In progress at UNHQ
Noon Briefings
Recent developments at Old City holy sites in Jerusalem have shown a grave risk that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will escalate into a religious one and drag both sides into a vortex of violence with the entire region, Nickolay Mladenov, Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, told the Security Council.
Filippo Grandi, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, called today for an immediate end to Australia’s off-shore processing of refugees, saying the harmful practice, carried out in Papua New Guinea and Nauru, denies access to asylum in Australia and has caused extensive, avoidable suffering for far too long.
We spoke earlier this week about the aerial attack on the embattled Mawza District of Yemen’s Taizz Governorate. The United Nations Human Rights Office said today that Tuesday’s air strike by the Arab Coalition Forces is believed to have killed at least 18 civilians, including 10 children and two women.
Briefing the Security Council today on South Sudan, the Assistant Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations warned that the security environment remains extremely volatile and stressed that the country needs an effective and credible ceasefire.
The United Nations refugee agency said today it is deeply shocked and saddened at reports of deaths and injuries suffered by internally displaced people in an aerial attack on embattled Mawza District in Yemen’s Taizz Governorate. Civilian casualties are still being verified, but initial reports indicate at least 20 people killed, including women and children.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is deeply concerned that, after recent fighting in Benghazi, people taken prisoner by members of the Libyan National Army may be at imminent risk of torture and even summary execution.
The United Nations and the humanitarian community remain deeply concerned for the safety and protection of tens of thousands of men, women and children trapped in Raqqa City in Syria. Heavy fighting continues to affect civilians, resulting in the displacement of thousands and scores of deaths and injuries.
The United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) said today that they are stepping up their response to the situation in Venezuela as asylum applications soar. So far in 2017, over 52,000 people have applied for asylum, which is already two times more than the total number for 2016.
In Ethiopia, the World Food Programme (WFP) said today that their funding — and food stocks — are quickly running out. The country is struggling with the effects of devastating back-to-back droughts. Some 7.8 million people need food assistance right now, and that number is expected to rise in the coming months after another failed rainy season.