Tag: UN

UNHCR to Cameroon: Stop deporting Nigerian refugees

April 26, 2018 Cameroon Boko Haram, Cameroon, Far North, Nigeria, Refugees, UN

Refugees and IDPs, uprooted by Boko Haram related violence in Northeastern Nigeria and Far North Cameroon, are waiting for relief aid to be distributed. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The UN refugee agency has repeated its call to Cameroon to stop forcing Nigerian refugees to return to unsafe Borno State in neighbouring Nigeria. Since the beginning of this year Cameroon has deported 385 Nigerians, the majority of them this month, says the UNHCR according to international broadcaster VOA. They . . . Read More

Tunisia’s religious freedom curbed by societal pressure – UN Rapporteur

April 23, 2018 Tunisia Ahmed Shaheed, Apostasy, Blasphemy, Human rights, Islamic extremism, Religious freedom, Sharia, Tunisia, UN

The Malik ibn Anas Mosque in Carthage, near the capital Tunis. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Old laws and societal pressure pose the greatest challenges to religious freedom in Tunisia, concluded the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ahmed Shaheed, after a ten-day visit. Though Tunisia’s 2014 Constitution guarantees religious freedom, there is still work to be done to align its laws and . . . Read More

‘Extremists given a free hand’ – Human Rights Commission of Pakistan

April 16, 2018 Pakistan Asia Bibi, Balochistan, Blasphemy, Human rights, Islamabad, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Minorities, Nadeem Masih, Pakistan, Patras Masih, Quetta, Religious freedom, Sajid Masih, Sawan Masih, UN

Pakistani Christians experience an increase in violence such as a suicide attack on the Bethel Methodist Church in Quetta in December last year that killed more than ten and injured dozens of people. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

Two Pakistani Christians were killed and at least three injured in a drive-by shooting on Sunday (15 April) in Essa Nagri, a Christian-majority area in Quetta, capital of the impoverished Balochistan province in the southwest. The victims, aged 19 and 28, had just left a church service when they were . . . Read More

Evangelical head sets out ambitious vision for rebuilding CAR

April 12, 2018 Central African Republic Bambari, Bangui, Catholics, Central African Republic, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, Nicolas Guérékoyamé-Gbangou, PK5, Protestants, Seleka, UN, Women, Youth

Churches in the Central African Republic have pledged to unite in prayer in response to the worsening violence dividing the country. The leader of the country’s evangelical church network says the effort has the potential to bring peace to the troubled nation. “Recent history of some countries in Africa, among . . . Read More

Five years on, Central African Republic crisis deepens

April 4, 2018 Central African Republic Anti-balaka, Bambari, Catherine Samba-Panza, Central African Republic, Dieudonné Nzapalainga, Oumar Kobine Layama, Seleka, UN, UPC

A UN official has called for a new approach to end the still-deepening crisis in the Central African Republic. The situation in CAR has been deteriorating for five years now, and in the next six months may grow even worse, according to the head of the UN’s Office for the Coordination . . . Read More

Dozens killed in CAR, including priest who planned to move

March 28, 2018 Central African Republic Anti-balaka, Antonio Guterres, Bambari, Bangassou, Bangui, Catholics, Central African Republic, Gambo, Seleka, UN, UPC

Dozens, including a Catholic priest, were killed last week as fighting erupted between armed groups in several villages in southern Central African Republic. Father Joseph Désiré Angbabata, 49, the parish priest of Séko village, near Bambari, lost his life when armed men stormed his village parish of Saint Charles LWANGA . . . Read More

Fresh move to prosecute IS for genocide

March 21, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country David Cameron, Europe, France, Genocide, International Criminal Court, Iraq, Islamic State, Kuwait, Lord Alton, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Syria, UK, UN, USA

Destroyed market in the town of Bartella, 15km east of Mosul, which was liberated from IS by Iraqi forces in October 2016. (Photo World Watch Monitor)

Campaigners have welcomed a bill designed to facilitate the prosecution of Islamic State jihadists for genocide against Christians, Yazidis and other minorities in Iraq and Syria. Complaining that efforts to encourage the British government to accuse IS of genocide had received “nothing but rebuttals and refusals”, Lord Alton, a Catholic, . . . Read More

UN told to renew mandate of Iran Special Rapporteur on human rights

March 15, 2018 Iran Children, Human rights, Iran, Minorities, Religious freedom, Torture, UN, Women

Asma Jahangir, Member of the International Fact-Finding Mission during the press conference presen's its findings on the implications Israeli settlements have upon the human rights of the Palestinian people. 31 Juanary 2013. Photo by Jean-Marc Ferré

Forty-six Iranian and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have called for the renewal of the mandate of the UN’s Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran. The NGOs addressed a joint letter to all diplomatic missions attending the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, as the US-based . . . Read More

Jailed US pastor’s daughter addresses UN Human Rights Council

March 13, 2018 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Ankara, Coup, Fethullah Gülen, Izmir, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey, UN, USA

The daughter of jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson appealed to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva last week to help secure her father’s release from prison in Turkey, where he has been jailed for the past 17 months. Declaring that her father had been “falsely imprisoned for far . . . Read More

Central African Republic: church elder among six aid workers hacked to death

March 8, 2018 Central African Republic Bangui, Central African Republic, PK5, Seleka, UN

A church elder who worked for UNICEF was one of six people killed during a recent ambush by armed men in northern Central African Republic. Gabriel Ole, 66, was an elder at a Baptist church (Eglise Baptiste Doumbia) in Bangui, the capital. He was among of a group of six . . . Read More

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