Tanzania’s new president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, ordered the Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports to lift the ban on media outlets Tuesday. “For the Ministry of Information, Culture, Arts and Sports, I’m told that you revoked licenses of some media outlets including online television stations. You should lift the ban and order them to [...]

The UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday adopted a resolution to promote reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka. The resolution, which was drafted in response to a damning UN report released in January, stresses the importance of an accountability process for parties who engage in violence and human rights abuses, naming the Liberation [...]

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet on Wednesday agreed to joint investigations with Ethiopia into possible war crimes committed in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray. “The High Commissioner responded positively to the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) request for joint investigations on Monday,” Jonathan Fowler, spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office [...]

The Biden administration announced Wednesday that it is re-instating a plan that was ended under the Trump era to help migrant minors in Central America reunite with their parents who are in the US legally. Roberta Jacobson, special assistant to President Joe Biden and coordinator for the US-Mexico border, announced the reinstatement of the Central [...]

While welcoming of the commutation of the death sentences of three Shia Muslim minors in Saudi Arabia, UN experts on Wednesday called for the country to quash their convictions and release them. The new sentence is 10 years imprisonment, including the time served.  Ali al-Nimr, Dawood al-Marhoon and Abdullah al-Zaher were under the age of 18 when [...]

Colombia’s Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) announced Thursday that it is investigating the deaths of at least 6,402 civilians between 2002 and 2008 whose deaths may have been falsely presented as combat casualties. This exceeds the 2,000 deaths the JEP was originally set to investigate. This case is known as “false positives,” and the JEP [...]

Jelena Aparac, the Chair-Rapporteur of the UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries, said Thursday the US federal authority’s reduction of its dependence on private prisons is an “encouraging step” but urged the US to also end outsourcing of detention centers holding migrants and asylum seekers.  President Biden ordered the US Department of Justice [...]

Audrey Azoulay, the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) called Tuesday for an inquiry into the killing of Ethiopian journalist Dawit Kebede. Individuals found Kebede and his friend, Bereket Berhe, shot dead in a car on January 19 in Mekelle, the capital of the Ethiopian region of Tigray. Kebede was a journalist [...]

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) announced Thursday that it is imposing sanctions on 28 individuals, including former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former National Security Advisor John Bolton and former White House strategiest Steve Bannon for violating China’s sovereignty. The sanctions prohibit the individuals from entering the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao. In [...]

Peruvian police used unnecessary and excessive force during protests between November 9 and November 15 last year, according to a Tuesday report from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). The protests concerned the legitimacy of interim president Manuel Merino after Congress voted to impeach President Martín Vizcarra over bribery charges. The [...]