The voices of young female students sounded out across a makeshift classroom tent in the Al Istiqlal camp at the centre of Deir al-Balah in Gaza, against the backdrop of war in the bombarded and besieged enclave as the head of the UN human rights office, OHCHR, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory listened intently.
The entire social fabric of families is unraveling in Haiti as displacement in the country reaches record numbers due largely to insecurity and gang-related violence, according to Abdoulaye Sawadogo, head of the UN’s humanitarian coordination office, OCHA, in the Caribbean island nation.
On the heels of this year’s Nelson Mandela International Day, marked annually on 18 July, we are taking you back in time to an epic moment at the United Nations in the 1990s when the anti-apartheid hero and icon made a historic debut in the UN General Assembly Hall as the first democratically elected President of South Africa.
On the outskirts of Lebanon’s second capital, Tripoli, lies a Palestinian refugee camp that is almost as old as their plight itself.
A reading programme for prisoners in jails in the Philippines is supporting their education as well as enabling them to shorten their sentences.
The conditions in detention facilities in the Philippines, which have been described as “inhumane” by one of the country’s Supreme Court Justices, are expected to improve dramatically as the Southeast Asian nation moves towards adopting rules which focus on the human rights and dignity of prisoners and recommend the minimum standard of treatment across detention facilities.
A more humane approach to dealing with people accused of breaking the law in the Philippines is helping relieve overcrowding in one of the world’s most congested prison systems.
With only 17 per cent of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on track and just six more years until the 2030 deadline, UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed has called for a new era of inspiring leadership, ahead of a special event on Monday to galvanize action.
An ex-prisoner in the Philippines, released from jail as a result of a UN-supported Government programme to tackle overcrowding in detention facilities, has spoken of his joy ‘sleeping and eating’ as a free man.
Transnational organised crime groups based in Southeast Asia are turning into “criminal service providers” selling a range of illegal activities, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).