A comprehensive data mapping exercise spearheaded by UN Human Rights in informal settlements in Serbia at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered that more than 30,000 Roma had little or no access to drinking water, over half lived without sewage services, and some 24,000 had limited or no electricity. The six-month effort identified 167,975 inhabitants in 702 Roma settlements and distributed 72,000 packages of essential food items, water, and protective gear to Roma households. The intervention strengthened Serbia’s capacity to gather and use data for broader Roma human rights and development efforts. As a result of this initiative, hundreds of Roma living in informal settlements now have safe drinking water.
OHCHR
For Iveth, the intersection of singing hip-hop and being a lawyer and human rights activist is seamless, as hip-hop's legacy of using music for protest and advocating change deeply influenced her perspective on social justice.
The stories of these young human rights champions serve as a source of inspiration, motivating others to take action and educate their communities on the importance of human rights.
Suamhirs Piraino-Guzman was 14 years old when he was trafficked from his native Honduras and smuggled by his captors into California. He was held prisoner and regularly drugged, alone in a dark and windowless room where he endured unimaginable suffering. Today, almost 20 years later, as an adult male survivor of child sexual exploitation and trafficking he has become an outspoken public advocate and an active member of survivors’ networks. He has also entered his second year as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the UN Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery. For 30 years, the Trust has been accompanying survivors by donating money to grassroots organizations that provide healthcare, shelter, food, legal aid, vocational training, education, income-generating activities and other support. In 2023, the Fund has aided more than 7,000 people.
The UN Prize in the Field of Human Rights is an honorary award given to individuals and organizations for outstanding achievement in human rights. It was established by the General Assembly in 1966 and has been awarded several times. The reward not only recognizes the accomplishments of the recipients but also supports human rights defenders worldwide. Among the 2023 recipients are an NGO from Belarus, an independent Center for Human Rights Studies from Jordan, a Global Coalition of civil society organizations and two human rights defenders from Uruguay and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk's message to mark the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Marsh Arabs, the wetlands' indigenous population of Iraq, have fished and cultivated crops for 5,000 years, raising water buffaloes and building houses from reedbeds on floating reed islands at the place where the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers meet before flowing into the Gulf. But climate change, water pollution, oil exploration and the construction of upstream dams threaten the survival of this delicate ecosystem and its ancient Mesopotamian culture, which some trace back to the Sumerians. Jassim Al-Asadi, head of the leading conservation group Nature Iraq, warns that a drought, which is now in its fourth year, is turning vast areas of once flourishing wetlands and agricultural land into desert. As a result, salinity is rising in the shrinking channels and waterways, killing fish and making buffaloes sick.
The UN Human Rights Office recently announced the winners of the Second Edition of the International Art Contest for Minority Artists. The four winners of this year’s competition were Babatunde “Tribe” Akande, Bianca Batlle Nguema, Mehdi Rajabian and Karhoum Dembele. The theme of the contest was for minority artists to expose, explore, and address matters relating to intersectionality and compounded forms of discrimination through their artwork. “Within a minute of looking at each piece of art submitted this year, the reasons to continue the fight for the realization of minority rights is so obvious, just in front of our eyes,” said Alexandra Xanthaki, UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights and a judge for the contest.
The link between humans and the environment must be preserved, for the benefit of safeguarding our planet for present and future generations to come.
A growing generation of young human rights defenders are organizing themselves to hold governments and businesses accountable on climate change.
For years, journalists in Mexico have been assassinated with impunity. Underpaid and overstretched, they usually work solo, often online or on social media only, without a safety net to protect them if they are victims of threats, attacks, or murder. Following the murder of her husband, Javier Arturo Valdez Cárdenas, journalist and human rights defender Griselda Triana amplifies the voices of those journalists whose own voices remain unheard. Griselda is a member of Sinaloa’s Consultative Council of the Institute for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, she sits on the jury of the Breach-Valdez Prize for Journalism and Human Rights and travels internationally to speak about freedom of the press.
New digital technologies have transformed the way people live in so many ways by creating economic growth, job creation and empowering human rights activism. At the same time, the dark side of these very same innovations can pose severe risks to people’s rights including by infringing on privacy, through the spread of hate speech, misinformation, the undermining of the democratic processes, and the increase in online violence. This is why UN Human Rights has created the Business and Human Rights in Technology Project, as a way to address these issues by providing an authoritative roadmap for applying the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to the development and use of digital technologies.
Technologies can be used for good by providing migrants with the ability to stay connected to their families and communities and to make complaints about chronic abuses. However, a new study from OHCHR reveals technologies can also harm human rights during the migration processes, with no real safeguards put in place. The report exposes multiple harms linked to the use of digital technologies in the management of borders, such as biometric recognition tools and massive interoperable databases, often linking information across government sectors and deployed in insecure ways. Emotion detection systems are also being used to justify migration decisions, leading to biased and discriminatory practices.
A healthy environment is a basic human right, advocates Francisco Vera, the 13-year-old Colombian Climate Human Rights defender.
