The draft resolution, circulated by the United States and Albania, was supported by ten of the fifteen members of the Council, with Russia voting against it. Four members abstained, Brazil, China, Gabon and India. The draft described the so-called referendums held by Russia in the four regions of Ukraine which Moscow now regards as sovereign
Read MorePramila Patten, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Sexual Violence in Armed Conflict, recalled her recent visit to Ukraine and outlined the elements of a recently signed Framework of Cooperation on the Prevention and Response to Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, which seeks to strengthen accountability and combat those abhorrent crimes. “Too often have the needs of women and girls
Read MoreBeginning her briefing with a wider perspective, Wairimu Nderitu said that hateful and contentious narratives that form in the wake of growing hostility, violence and discrimination, could have a “devastating impact” on societies at large. “We saw it in the lead up to the Holocaust, in Rwanda in 1994” and also in the ethnically-charged Bosnia
Read MorePresenting her annual report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Anaïs Marin, Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Belarus, pointed to Government policies that have systematically tightened legislation and restricted civil and political rights. She said it was a trend that has continued in the two years since the UN rights office,
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