United Nations Human Rights Council

On Friday, The Washington Post published an op-ed by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in which she condemned the way in which the Human Rights Council (HRC) operates.

Haley wrote that Venezuela and Cuba having seats on the Human Rights Council is an affront to the international body, as both nations are rampant abusers of human rights:

The Geneva-based human rights group UN Watch condemned the U.N.’s election of Saudi Arabia, “the world’s most misogynistic regime,” to a 2018-2022 term on its Commission on the Status of Women, the U.N. agency “exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.”

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. 

For the first time since its inception in 2006, Russia will not be a member of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) after being narrowly beaten by Croatia in a vote. Saudi Arabia was successfully re-elected, despite criticism from human rights organizations.

GENEVA/BELGRADE/PRISTINA - UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights Karima Bennoune will visit Serbia, including Kosovo, on October 3-14 to assess efforts in implementing the rights of all to access to cultural life and cultural heritage, with particular focus on destruction of heritage in the past and present, the UN has announced.

UN war crimes investigators on Monday called on European countries to let them interview more newly-arrived Syrian refugees to document fresh violations, saying it had become increasingly difficult.

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.

Geopolitical considerations and the current battle on the ground in Syria are preventing the search for greater accountability on human rights issues in the ongoing conflict, according to diplomats in Geneva observing the U.N. Human Rights Council.

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.

A delegation of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has voiced concern over what it described as the "increasingly worrisome situation" in southeast Turkey and its impact on human rights.