The New Zealand government announced Thursday that it would ban the sale of cigarettes for future generations to reach its smoke-free 2025 implementation plan. The Cabinet paper highlights that cigarette smoking is still the leading cause of preventable death in New Zealand, causing between 4,500 and 5,000 deaths each year. Smoking-related harm disproportionately impacts Maori, [...]

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres, at the second session of the Conference on the Establishment of a Middle East Zone Free of Nuclear Weapons and Other Weapons of Mass Destruction on Monday, called on all Middle East states to put into reality the vision of a region with no weapons of mass destruction. Guterres stated [...]

Human Rights Watch released a report Sunday stating that the Central African Republic government should coordinate with UN peacekeepers to ensure that war crimes suspect Hassan Bouba is returned to custody. Bouba, a minister and former rebel group leader in the Central African Republic, was released from detention in defiance of court orders and escorted [...]

The United Nations Thursday adopted a historical text defining the common values and principles needed to ensure the healthy development of artificial intelligence. The agreement was adopted at the 41st session of the UNESCO General Conference, showing renewed cooperation on the ethics of artificial intelligence. The agreement called the Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial [...]

Human Rights Watch released a report on Thursday stating that Russia should end discrimination against women in custody. This comes after the European Court on Human Rights ruled in the case of Tapayeva and Others v Russia, that Luisa Tapayeva, a Chechen woman, should be reunited with her four daughters who were taken from her [...]

UN human rights expert Fernand de Varennes Monday said that electoral laws in some parts of the US, including Texas, may undermine democracy by depriving millions of citizens who belong to minority groups of the equal right to vote. Varennes stated this during a news conference on his final day of a two-week visit to [...]

The Council of the European Union amended its sanctions regime against Belarus on Monday, agreeing to step up sanctions in view of the situation at the EU’s border with Belarus. Belarus denounced as “absurd” Western accusations that it was driving a migrant crisis that has left thousands of people stranded on the EU border. The [...]

A UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) climate agreement was reached Saturday in Glasgow after negotiations were extended an extra day. The agreement was adopted after nearly 200 countries met in Scotland. However, UN Secretary-General António Guterres says the compromise deal is not enough. Going into COP26, there were high hopes that the meeting would result [...]

Human rights watchdogs accused six high-ranking members of the Belarusian security authorities of committing crimes against humanity in a criminal complaint filed in Germany Monday. The complaint was filed with the German Public Prosecutor General by the Geneva-based World Organization against Torture (OMCT) and the Berlin-based European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR). The [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a report Monday stating the need to call out Tajikistan’s human rights crackdown. The report states that since banning in 2015 its sole remaining opposition party, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), the Tajik government has jailed hundreds of political activists, journalists, and lawyers. Torture and ill-treatment are routinely [...]