UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo on Wednesday expressed deep concerns about the escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula, emphasizing that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) is continuing to carry out a five-year military plan launched in January 2021 rather than complying with its international obligations. DiCarlo noted that the constant nuclear program includes [...]

France’s supreme court, the Cour de Cassation, upheld a Paris Court of Appeals ruling on Wednesday, confirming the conviction of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy for corruption and influence peddling, sentencing him to a year under electronic monitoring. Sarkozy, who served as France’s president from 2007 to 2012, was found guilty in March 2021 by [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Thursday reported ongoing threats against Afghan women who had served in the police under the former government. While the current Taliban authorities are held responsible for these threats, the report also notes that policewomen faced sexual abuse and harassment while serving under the former government. The report urges countries that [...]

The leader of Hungary’s largest opposition party, Péter Magyar, organized a protest in Budapest on Saturday at the headquarters of the country’s public broadcaster (MTVA) against the government’s influence over media in Hungary. The organizers, including many followers of Magyar’s Tisza party, played an audio recording and a documentary which alleged that journalists were threatened [...]

Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that multiple provisions of the country’s Federal Criminal Police Office Act (BKA Act) are unconstitutional because they infringe upon citizens’ privacy rights. The Society for Civil Rights e.V. (Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V. or “GFF”), a German donor-funded organization, challenged the act in court, asserting that the anti-terrorist surveillance and [...]

Former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig said in an interview on Monday that he suffered psychological torture during his detention by Chinese authorities. Kovrig and Canadian businessman, Michael Spavor, were arrested in December 2018, shortly after the arrest and detention of Huawei CFO, Meng Wanzhou, at a Vancouver airport by Canadian officials became public. In 2020, The [...]

The UN Secretary-General spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said on Saturday that the UN chief is “gravely alarmed” at the full-scale assault on the city of El Fasher by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan, stating that the warring parties’ disregard for ceasefire calls is unconscionable. The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the [...]

The UN Child Rights Committee (CRC) condemned Israel’s violation of rights protected by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) on Thursday, citing Israel’s “indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks” which have killed, injured and orphaned high numbers of Palestinian children. According to customary international humanitarian law, children affected by armed conflict are entitled to [...]

The Court of Appeals (CA) Special 7th Division of Philippines on Friday decided that the revocation order issued by the Philippine Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against Filipino news website Rappler was illegal, ordering the SEC to restore the certificate of Incorporation of Rappler, Inc. and Rappler Holdings Corporation. The court declared the SEC’s previous [...]

Civil society representatives spoke to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, arguing that gender perspectives must be integrated into all components of peace missions. The speakers emphasized that the “critical situation in Sudan provides fundamental lessons for the United Nations to draw down or terminate peacekeeping missions in other transitional countries where women’s lives are at [...]