Page 18 - Lobal Issues News Today

Syria is experiencing a wave of violence not seen in years that likely amounts to war crimes, top UN-appointed rights investigators said on Monday.

Waves of violence have displaced more than 15,000 Haitians in just a week amid ongoing looting at the country’s main port, according to the latest report from the UN agency for migration, as the Security Council on Monday strongly condemned “destabilizing” criminal activity by armed gangs ravaging the Caribbean nation.

The UN Secretary-General said on Thursday he was “appalled by the tragic human toll of the conflict in Gaza” where more than 30,000 people have now reportedly been killed and over 70,000 injured.

The Nicaraguan Government continues to perpetrate “serious systematic human rights violations, tantamount to crimes against humanity,” an expert group appointed by the UN Human Rights Council said on Thursday.

As the devastating war in Gaza continues, UN investigators examining Israeli accusations against a dozen employees of the beleaguered UN relief agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, have arrived in Jordan and are planning to visit Israel, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Thursday.

A revival of Taliban-ordered public executions by gunfire taking place in sports stadiums in several cities in Afghanistan “must cease immediately”, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) said on Wednesday.

The “carnage” in Gaza has left more than 30,000 dead and must end immediately, UN rights chief Volker Türk told the Human Rights Council on Thursday, after almost five months of constant Israeli bombardment and mass displacement in the enclave, prompted by Hamas-led attacks.

The mobile phone industry has pledged over $9 billion towards the goal of connecting the world, said the chief of the UN International Telecommunication Union (ITU) on Monday, addressing the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Well over half a million Gazans are just a step away from famine, said senior UN humanitarians, briefing the Security Council Tuesday on food security in the stricken enclave. The deputy head of UN aid coordination told ambassadors that famine is "almost inevitable" unless aid can be scaled up immediately.

Fallout from conflict in the Middle East and ongoing fighting in Syria are having a devastating impact on civilians inside the country, UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen told the Security Council on Tuesday.