Here are two recent important updates on the Syria crisis:

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is deeply concerned by the acknowledged increased participation in the fighting in Syria by Hizbollah, as well as by the risk of spillover in Lebanon, which has witnessed growing tension over the past week. Read more: http://j.mp/13ZiHCR

The United Nations Human Rights chief Navi Pillay urged the international community to stop the escalating bloodshed and suffering in Syria, stressing it has become “an intolerable affront to the human conscience.”

In this photo, Syrian refugees wait to be registered by UNHCR staff in Lebanon.

Credit: UNHCR/M. Abu Asaker

A United Nations expert group on human rights recently urged international clothing brands not to disengage from Bangladesh, but to collaborate with the government, international organizations, and civil society to address working conditions in the garment sector.

“We strongly urge international clothing brands sourcing from Bangladesh to address human rights risks in their supply chains with the involvement of workers, other relevant stakeholders, and human rights experts, and to share publicly what they are doing to mitigate their risks,” says one of the experts.

The group stressed that such commitment is crucial to prevent another tragedy like the Rana Plaza collapse, where hundreds of people, most of whom were young, female garment workers, have now been confirmed dead.

Photo credit: EPA/ABIR ABDULLAH

Every day, millions of people around the world are being threatened not only by international war and internal conflicts but also by chronic and persistent poverty, natural disasters, organised crime, human trafficking, health pandemics, and sudden economic and financial downturns.

Human security aims at ensuring the survival, livelihood and dignity of people in response to current and emerging threats - threats that are widespread and cross cutting. 

World leaders have stressed “the right of all people to live in freedom and dignity, free from poverty and despair” — rights that form the foundation for human safety on all continents and acknowledge the interlinkages between security, development and human rights and consider these to be the building blocks of human and national security.

In this context, a High-Level event on Human Security is taking place today, May 8, in New York City which aims to chart a future course for human security; an approach that integrates peace, security, development, and human rights.

United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner, Navi Pillay, has welcomed the entry into force of a new treaty known as the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

“The Protocol makes a strong and unequivocal statement about the equal value and importance of all human rights and the need for strengthened legal protection of economic, social and cultural rights in particular,” says Pillay.

It will allow people to file a complaint with the UN should their rights be infringed by a Member State that has signed the Protocol - thereby empowering individuals to seek out justice when their rights to food, adequate housing, education or health are violated.

Have a look in the treaty collection and see whether or not your country has ratified the Protocol.

History was made at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday!

Building on a process which began in the 1990s, countries passed a resolution adopting the Arms Trade Treaty which will create a uniform framework covering the international trade in conventional arms resulting in a level playing field for the global arms trade, bringing to it more accountability, openness and transparency, and making it harder for human rights abusers, criminals and arms traffickers to obtain weapons.

Vote count: 154 in favour, 3 against, and 23 abstentions.


Photo credit: Permanent Mission of Norway on Twitter (@NorwayUN)

“Racism and sport” is the focus of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on 21 March 2013.  Our colleagues from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights are hosting a special event this week with football/soccer superstars Patrick Vieira and Kevin-Prince Boateng.

Today we remember Stéphane Hessel, one of the greatest friends and relentless advocates of the United Nations. The last surviving drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights died this week at the age of 95.  Our colleagues in Brussels made a tribute to him.

Protecting the environment: “Not just about environmental harm, but rights – human rights.”

This week UN expert John Knox asked world governments to take into account human rights laws in designing and developing environmental governance.

Credit: UN Photo/Ky Chung via United Nations Human Rights

UN human rights chief Navi Pillay welcomes the upcoming entry into force of a key Protocol to an international treaty which will enable individual complaints on economic, social and cultural rights.

In this photo, a woman from the Akhdam community holds her baby in a slum, in Sana’a, Yemen, 2 December 2012. Credit: EPA/YAHYA ARHAB