• The United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. Headquarters in New York on October 1, 2012.
    © 2012 Reuters
    UN: Noncompetitive Elections Weaken Rights Council

    Limited competition in elections for the United Nations Human Rights Council undermines membership standards set for the body by the UN General Assembly. Although the General Assembly elected 18 countries to the Human Rights Council on November 12, 2012, only three faced challengers in their bids for a seat.  

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United Nations

  • UN Sets Inquiry into North Korea Prison Camps
    Jun 24, 2013
    Shin Dong-hyuk is the only man born in one of North Korea’s camps for political prisoners, called kwan-li-so, who is known to have escaped. In the camp, he was forced to do back-breaking labor and went hungry for days on end. Guards tortured him, hung him from his ankles and burned him with hot coals. At age 14, he watched as his mother was hanged and his brother shot dead.
  • Yemen: UPR Submission June 2013
    Jun 19, 2013
    Popular discontent, already rising due to widespread unemployment and government corruption, soared in late 2010 after then President Ali Abdullah Saleh proposed to amend electoral laws and the constitution so that he could again seek re-election when his seventh presidential term expired in 2013. In January 2011, inspired by mass protests in Tunisia and Egypt, thousands of Yemenis took to the streets calling for an end to Saleh’s 33-year rule.
  • UN Human Rights Council: General Debate on the OHCHR report on South Sudan
    Jun 12, 2013
    Human Rights Watch welcomes the conclusions of reports of the High Commissioner for Human Rights presented to the Human Rights Council at its 21st and 23rd session and shares her view that in the area of human rights, actual implementation remains extremely weak in South Sudan. The government took noteworthy steps to develop its legal and institutional structure, but South Sudan continues to face enormous challenges.
  • UN Human Rights Council: Interactive Dialogue with the Independent Expert on Côte d'Ivoire
    Jun 11, 2013
    Human Rights Watch welcomes the willingness of the government of Côte d’Ivoire to renew the Independent Expert’s mandate, demonstrating its commitment to improve the country’s human rights situation and to implement the Independent Expert’s recommendations. The Independent Expert has repeatedly stressed that impartial justice is essential to end the country’s decade-long human rights crisis.
  • UN Human Rights Council: Adoption of the Outcome of the UPR of the United Arab Emirates
    Jun 7, 2013
    The Human Rights Council’s review of the United Arab Emirates comes at a time of serious concern about the rights situation in the country. Human Rights Watch has described the mass trial of 94 Emirati dissidents as “fundamentally unfair” and has documented numerous violations of fair trial rights and credible allegations of torture at UAE state security facilities.
  • UN Human Rights Council: Adoption of the Outcome of the UPR of France
    Jun 6, 2013
    The Universal Periodic Review of France addressed a range of concerns, including on the issues of discrimination in particular with regards to identity checks and religious symbols, forced evictions and expulsions of Roma and counterterrorism laws.
  • France: Government Promises UN to End Ethnic Profiling
    Jun 6, 2013
    France should act on its promise to prohibit and prevent ethnic profiling and provide effective remedies to victims.
  • UN Human Rights Council: Adoption of the Outcome of the UPR of Burundi
    Jun 6, 2013
    Human Rights Watch deeply regrets that Burundi rejected all recommendations to fight impunity for extra-judicial killings. HRW remains particularly concerned at the lack of progress in bringing to justice perpetrators of extrajudicial killings and other acts of political violence since 2010.
  • UN Human Rights Council: US Should Stop Detaining Individuals Without Charge or Trial at Guantanamo and Bagram
    Jun 5, 2013
    The United States continues to detain individuals for indefinite periods without charge or trial at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and at Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan in violation of its obligations under international human rights law.
  • UN Human Rights Council: Report of the Special Rapporteur on Eritrea Confirms Patterns of Abuses
    Jun 5, 2013
    The Eritrean government remains among the worst human rights violators in the world. The report of the Special Rapporteur on Eritrea confirms the patterns of abuses that Human Rights Watch and other independent observers have documented over the past 15 years. As the Rapporteur noted, there is a “blatant disrespect for human rights in Eritrea” that requires “fundamental reform.”
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