Special Rapporteur

A United Nations delegation including the special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary killings was denied entry to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul's Levent neighborhood on Jan. 29.

Mistreatment is widespread in post-coup attempt detentions in Turkey, U.N. human rights expert Nils Melzer has said, referring to numerous testimonies from inmates, their lawyers and civil society organizations he met last week in the country. 

The U.N. Human Rights Council has started monitoring and reporting on violations of the right to freedom of opinion in Turkey, sending a special rapporteur to the country 20 years after the last such mission was conducted in 1996. 

BELGRADE - The deputy head of the Serbian government Office for Kosovo-Metohija, Dusan Kozarev, on Monday presented to Chaloka Beyani, UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons, the concept of the Sunny Valley returnee settlement in Kosovo-Metohija and the obstacles to a greater sustainable return of IDPs.

United Nations human rights expert Karima Bennoune on Thursday slammed the "unjustified" restriction facing religious services in ethnically-split Cyprus.

Turkish Cypriot authorities have restricted the number of visits allowed to Greek Orthodox churches in the north of the island, saying they could not cope with the frequency and demand of such services.

The use of terrorism legislation by governments as a tool to suppress freedom of expression is not a discussion limited to Turkey or elsewhere, as the United Nations human rights body has become preoccupied with the same discussion with two separate draft resolutions favoring different stances on the issue.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Thursday passed a resolution on the state of human rights in Kosovo.

It was tabled by Rapporteur Augustin Conde of Spain.

UK Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond was undeterred by criticism by the UN for ‘racism’ stating that African immigrants were undermining the European standard of living, during a visit in Singapore. Hammond said the UK’s top priority was sending would be asylum seekers back where they came from.

The Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP) co-leaders Selahattin Demirta? and Figen Yüksekda? have filed a request that the United Nations launch an inquiry into what they call ?unlawful and arbitrary executions? after the deadly suicide bomb attack in the border town of Suruç, the HDP Press Office said in a written statement on Aug. 6.

Interior Minister Nikos Voutsis on Tuesday heralded a scheme that aims to improve the living standards of the country?s Roma community by relocating them out of makeshift settlements and improving their access to education and health services.