Volker Türk

United Nations officials have called on Israel and Palestinian armed groups to stop targeting civilians and allow them access to basic services.  UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Tuesday issued an urgent plea to all states with influence to take steps to defuse the “powder keg” situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). He stressed that international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law must be respected in all circumstances.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, warned on Friday that Sudanese civilians are in greater danger than ever, as ethnically motivated attacks by warring parties are becoming "increasingly common." The warning comes amid reports of an imminent battle for control of the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. The conflict in Sudan has sparked famine, killed tens of thousands of people, and driven millions from their homes.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Friday warned of a further deterioration in the human rights situation in South Sudan, following a sharp increase in hostilities, arbitrary arrests and hate speech in the country since February. The warning comes as South Sudan faces one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises, and one of the worst prospects since independence in 2011.

United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk called Friday on Myanmar's military to end all attacks on civilians and civilian objects. He said the unremitting violence against civilians, despite a ceasefire declared after the March earthquakes, underscores the need for the parties to the conflict to commit to and implement a genuine and lasting nationwide cessation of hostilities and a return to civilian rule.

Acting UN relief chief Joyce Msuya says what Israeli forces are doing in the besieged northern Gaza Strip cannot be allowed to continue. In a statement on Saturday, she warned that "the entire population of north Gaza is at risk of dying". The urgent call and warning come after Israeli troops reportedly stormed one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza, and as civilians, including children and the disabled, face increasingly horrific conditions in the war-torn territory.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged the international community on Tuesday to create an international body that would assist families of the estimated 100,000 missing persons in Syria to find out the fate and whereabouts of their loved ones. The call came at a time when Syrians, who have suffered 12 years of civil war, are facing the added devastation of the recent earthquake.

The Myanmar Armed Forces have carried out deadly airstrikes which reportedly killed as many as 100 people in an opposition stronghold in the northwest on Tuesday. The air strike is one of the deadliest attacks on civilians since Myanmar's military seized power in a coup in February 2021. According to media reports, most of the injured and dead are women and children.

Sources in Iran report steadily rising numbers of fatalities from Israeli attacks. More than 450 people have reportedly been killed in the country, including dozens of women and children, and more than 1,400 people have reportedly been injured in Israeli airstrikes and missile attacks that began early Friday. Meanwhile, Israeli health authorities say that 24 people have been killed and more than 600 injured by Iranian counter-strikes since Friday.

Tackling insecurity in Haiti, where gang violence has killed and injured thousands and displaced tens of thousands, must be the utmost priority, a United Nations report released on Friday said, urging Haitian authorities and the international community to do more to protect people and prevent further suffering. The Caribbean nation is facing a worsening humanitarian crisis, with more than 5.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

Extreme violence and gross human rights abuses, including mass incidents of murder, gang rape and sniper attacks, have sharply increased in Cité Soleil on the outskirts of the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince, said a UN report published Friday, creating “a living nightmare” for thousands. The report comes as 5.2 million people – nearly half of the Haitian population – are in need of humanitarian aid, including 2.6 million children.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warns the potential spillover of dozens of conflicts around the world is threatening global peace and causing human rights violations to surge in all regions. He says that widespread violations of international humanitarian and human rights law are generating devastating impact on millions of civilians, while displacement and humanitarian crises have already reached an unprecedented scale.

The "Illegal Migration Bill", which has now been passed by Parliament in the United Kingdom (UK), is “at variance with the country’s obligations under international human rights and refugee law” and will have profound consequences for people in need of international protection, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi warned today. In order for the Bill to come into force, it requires the approval – royal assent - of King Charles III. 

Amid growing fears of a wider war, the UN Security Council held an emergency session on Friday after Israeli strikes on the Lebanese capital Beirut and in the south left at least a dozen dead and more than 60 injured. The meeting came amid an upsurge in cross-border fire between Hezbollah and Israeli forces and two days of terrorist attacks in Lebanon that used deadly explosions from wireless devices, killing at least 37 people and maiming or injuring more than 3,400.

The United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Ukraine, Denise Brown, has strongly denounced a wave of Russian attacks that began Thursday night and lasted through Friday on populated areas across the country. At least 30 civilians were reportedly killed, with more than 150 others injured. Ukrainian authorities said the death toll will likely increase further as rescue operations continue.

A report by the UN human rights office accuses both of Sudan’s warring parties of committing horrific violations and abuses against the country’s civilian population, “some of which may amount to war crimes and possibly other serious crimes under international law.” The UN report holds the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) responsible for the killings of at least 14,600 civilians and the forced displacement of more than 8 million people both inside Sudan and as refugees in five neighboring countries.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Wednesday expressed shock at reports that as many as hundreds of civilians were killed and many others injured in air strikes by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) on a crowded market in Tora village, Sudan's North Darfur State, on Monday. There are conflicting reports on the number of casualties, ranging from several dozen to hundreds.

A new United Nations report published Tuesday details a further, shocking rise in gang violence in Haiti as criminal gangs forge alliances and expand to rural areas previously considered safe – killing, raping, kidnapping, and destroying property, among other human rights abuses. The report, released by the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) and the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH), calls for the urgent deployment of the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission authorized by the UN Security Council in October, in accordance with international human rights norms and standards.

Armed groups, including one linked to the Armed Forces of the Central African Republic (CAR), have committed grave human rights violations in the Haut Oubangui region in the south-east of the country, mainly against Muslim communities and Sudanese refugees and asylum-seekers, according to a new UN report. Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation in CAR remains critical as the population continues to face insecurity, while the ongoing war in Sudan exacerbates the situation.