MICHELLE BACHELET

In a close diplomatic victory for China, the U.N.’s top human rights body has voted down a proposal from Britain, Turkey, the United States and other mostly Western countries to hold a debate on alleged rights abuses against Muslim Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in China’s western Xinjiang region.

An envoy from China’s Xinjiang province says Chinese authorities are ready for a “fight” with “anti-China” critics in the West and elsewhere over allegations of rights abuses in the anti-extremism campaign against Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups in the region.

Diplomats and human rights advocates speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly are calling for forceful action on China's alleged persecution of ethnic minorities.

As world leaders gather in New York next week for the annual U.N. General Assembly, China is also focusing on another U.N.-related meeting in Geneva.

Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó has offered a broad accounting of millions of dollars under his control and took credit for social programs benefiting people across the troubled South American country.

A top Chinese diplomat says China can’t work with the U.N. human rights office after it released a report criticizing Beijing’s policies against Uyghurs and other ethnic groups in western Xinjiang.

The U.N. General Assembly has approved veteran Austrian diplomat Volker Türk to be the global body’s human rights chief and the world’s advocate for adherence to the universal rights at a time when the office is facing harsh criticism from China for accusing Beijing of abuses against Muslim minorities.

The U.N.’s long-delayed report on mass detentions and other rights abuses against Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in China's far-western Xinjiang region has been welcomed by survivors as an acknowledgement of abuses they say they faced at the hands of the Chinese state.

China is responding furiously to a United Nations report on alleged human rights abuses in its northwestern Xinjiang region targeting Uyghurs and other mainly Muslim ethnic minorities.

The U.N. accused China of serious human rights violations that may amount to “crimes against humanity” in a long-delayed report examining a crackdown on Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups.

A long-awaited report from the U.N. human rights office says China’s discriminatory detention of Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim ethnic groups in the western region of Xinjiang may constitute crimes against humanity.

Myanmar has carried out its first executions in nearly 50 years, hanging a former lawmaker, a democracy activist and two other political prisoners who had been accused of a targeted killing after the country’s military takeover last year.

Hundreds of people, mostly ethnic Amhara, were slaughtered in a village and its surroundings this month in the latest explosion of ethnic violence in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation.

The top U.N. human rights official says she raised concerns with Chinese officials about the impact of counterterrorism and deradicalization measures on the rights of Uyghurs and other predominantly Muslim groups in China’s Xinjiang region.

An Algerian military officer-turned-democracy activist has been deported from Spain and charged in Algeria in a case that human rights groups see as another sign of an ever-expanding crackdown on dissent.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping has defended China’s record to the top U.N. human rights official, criticizing countries that he said lecture others on human rights and politicize the issue.

China says the U.S.

Gangs are fighting each other and seizing territory in Haiti's capital with a new intensity and brutality.

For the first time, key players seeking accountability for atrocities during the Ukraine war have come together at an informal meeting of the U.N. Security Council to spur investigations into abuses that many Western countries blame on Russia.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has met with the de facto rulers of the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia in efforts to ease gasoline prices as the West grapples with economic headwinds from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine is the largest conflict that Europe has seen since World War II, with Russia conducting a multi-pronged offensive across the country.

Russian forces have stepped up their attacks on several Ukrainian cities, with a huge convoy of Russian tanks and armored vehicles on a road to the capital, Kyiv, and fighting intensifying there and in other population centers.

A former Syrian secret police officer was convicted by a German court Thursday of crimes against humanity for overseeing the abuse of detainees at a jail near Damascus a decade ago.

Most eligible Chilean voters stayed home for the first round of presidential voting.

The U_N_ human rights chief says if insecurity in Burkina Faso keeps up, the West African country could spiral into a humanitarian and human rights “catastrophe.”.

A court in military-ruled Myanmar has sentenced U.S. journalist Danny Fenster to 11 years in prison with hard labor.

The United Nations' top human rights official has condemned actions by military leaders in Sudan following a coup almost two weeks ago and called on them to let civilian rule return.

The U.N. human rights chief says Ethiopia’s yearlong war has been marked by “extreme brutality" as a joint investigation into alleged atrocities faults all sides for committing abuses.

The U.N.‘s top human rights official and U.S. President Joe Biden’s envoy to this year’s climate summit called Thursday for countries to step up the fight against global warming.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has bracketed Myanmar with Afghanistan and Ethiopia as nations where peace and stability remain a distant dream.

The World Bank has dropped a popular report that ranked countries by how welcoming they are to businesses after allegations that it bowed to pressure from China and other governments.

The U.N. humanitarian chief says $1.2 billion has been promised to help Afghans facing a growing humanitarian crisis in the country and millions in the region, calling the pledges “an important step” toward helping the needy.

U.S. President Joe Biden says he will stick with his Aug. 31 deadline for finishing a U.S.-led evacuation of Americans, at-risk Afghans and others.

Tens of thousands have fled their homes in northern Afghanistan in recent days to escape fighting.

Human rights and press freedom activists are up in arms about a new report on NSO Group, the notorious Israeli hacker-for-hire company.

Cuban officials have rallied tens of thousands of supporters in the streets nearly a week after they were stunned by the most widespread protests in decades.

The U.N. rights chief is urging the release of all those detained in Cuba’s protests and calling on the government to address their grievances.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has asked his Southeast Asian counterparts to press for an end to violence in Myanmar, its return to a democratic path and the release of all political prisoners.

The seaside condominium that collapsed in Florida this week was a true reflection of Miami’s international mix — South American immigrants, Orthodox Jews, foreign retirees.

The top U.N. human rights body has passed a resolution aimed to intensify scrutiny of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.

Human rights groups and Western nations led by the United States, Britain and Germany are accusing China of massive crimes against the Uyghur minority and demanding unimpeded access for U.N. experts.

One hundred days since their takeover, Myanmar’s ruling generals maintain just the pretense of control over the country.

The guilty verdict in the trial over George Floyd's death was not just celebrated in America.

AdEthiopia continues to deny the Eritreans’ presence, even as senior officials with the interim Tigray government that Ethiopia appointed are increasingly outspoken about them. The Telegraph, citing witnesses, has reported one in Debre Abay. CNN, citing witnesses, has reported one in Dengelat. Even as it announced the limited media access, Ethiopia warned journalists to essentially behave themselves. An access map published this week by the U.N. humanitarian agency showed much of Tigray inaccessible beyond major roads and cities.

According to the U.N. report, at least 133 human rights defenders were murdered in Colombia in 2020, a 23% increase from 2019. The United Nations also registered 76 massacres across the country last year, which are defined as events in which three or more civilians are executed at once. AdThe report will be presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday by U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. The United Nations urged Colombia’s government to increase its presence in these areas to protect civilians and bring down violence. Critics of his government have said that it has been slow at implementing some aspects of the peace deal, including the coca substitution projects.

Francisco Vera, 11, who is well-known in Colombia for his environmental campaigns and defense of children's rights, gives an interview in Villeta, Colombia, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021. The 11-year old activist who received a death threat over Twitter, says that he will continue to lead campaigns and urged other young people to use social media to support causes they believe in. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)VILLETA – A social media death threat aimed at an 11-year-old environmental activist has roused outrage in Colombia, a nation where attacks on social leaders are common and threats are taken seriously. Colombian officials said they are investigating the death threat against Francisco Vera and President Ivan Duque recently promised in a television appearance that his government would find “the bandits” behind the Twitter message. She said a town official suggested shutting down her son’s social media account, but she prefers to let him decide whether to stop campaigning.

Santana, who runs an organization that helps community leaders fleeing violence to settle in Bogota, is one of the thousands of activists assigned some sort of government protection. The Afro-Colombian community leader sometimes she uses a hat or a turban for disguise. Last year 120 community leaders were murdered in Colombia according to the U.N.’s High Commissioner for Human Rights, up from 107 a year earlier. Now 46, he's spent half of his life promoting human rights and fighting against illegal mining and corruption in his province. The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, recently urged the government to increase protection for activists in rural areas.

In this fragile refugee community on the edge of Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict, those who have fled nearly two months of deadly fighting continue to bring new accounts of horror. “So if I go to Tigray, they would pick up that I’m Amhara because Amhara is not a part of them. For Tewodros, the conflict has been one civilian casualty after another since shelling began in early November as he worked at a hospital in Humera. Ethiopia's prime minister often speaks of “medemer,” or national unity, Tewodros said, in a country with more than 80 ethnic groups. In this conflict that remains so much in the shadows, he now relies on strangers to know their fate.

Others say it was Tigrayan forces and their allies who were responsible. In Sudan, where nearly 50,000 people have fled, one ethnic Amhara refugee gave The Associated Press a similar account. “Anyone they found, they would kill,” Tesfaalem Germay, an ethnic Tigrayan who fled to Sudan with his family, said of Ethiopian and Amhara forces. But another refugee, Abebete Refe, told the AP that many ethnic Amhara like him who stayed behind were massacred by Tigrayan forces. In Mai-Kadra, witnesses told the visiting Ethiopian rights commission they saw police, militia and members of a Tigray youth group attack Amhara.

Protests in Belarus have continued for almost four months after President Alexander Lukashenko won his sixth term in office in an election the opposition says was rigged. Police in Minsk said they detained more than 300 people. The Viasna human rights group released the names of 215 people detained in Minsk and other cities, where rallies also took place. At least four journalists have been detained in Minsk and the western city of Grodno, according the Belarusian Association of Journalists. On Friday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement that the situation with human rights in Belarus is getting worse.

Riot police block Belarusian pensioners wearing face masks to protect against coronavirus during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus, Monday, Nov. 30, 2020. (AP Photo)GENEVA – The United Nations' human rights chief lamented a deteriorating situation in Belarus and said Friday that reported beatings of protesters by security forces may in some cases amount to torture. Police have cracked down hard on the largely peaceful demonstrations, using stun grenades, tear gas and truncheons to disperse protesters. Thousands of people have been detained and many of them badly beaten since the protests began, human rights advocates say. Opposition leaders in Belarus have sought discussions with the government about a transfer of power or a new election, which Lukashenko has rejected.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's 72-hour ultimatum for the region's leaders to surrender ends on Wednesday. Now he sits in Africa’s diplomatic capital, home of the African Union, and rejects calls for dialogue. The diplomatic vacuum has brought Ethiopia, one of Africa’s most powerful and populous countries, to what Amnesty International calls “the brink of a deadly escalation” at the heart of the strategic Horn of Africa. In a rare intervention on an African issue, Trump told the State Department to suspend millions of dollars of aid to Ethiopia and asserted that Egypt would “blow up” the dam. But where Ethiopia will be by the time Biden takes office two months from now is unknown.

Ethnic Tigrayans arrested, in hiding or cut off from the world. Ethiopia’s deadly conflict is spilling beyond its northern Tigray region and turning identity into a mortal threat. Ethnic Tigrayans report being questioned and threatened. “It's not just me, several dozens of others have faced the same situation.” Other ethnic Tigrayans said they are being blocked from boarding flights. “I’m really afraid this might lead to ethnic attacks on Tigrayans,” said Mekonnen, who leads an association of ethnic Tigrayans.

GENEVA – The U.N. human rights chief on Tuesday urged India’s government to do more to protect human rights defenders, who have come under mounting pressure in recent months in the world’s largest democracy. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet's office pointed to three “problematic” laws in India that have variously tightened restrictions on non-governmental organizations and led to a crackdown on dissent. Critics say India under Modi has grown increasingly intolerant, with a crackdown on dissent unprecedented in scale. Leaders of Modi’s party have routinely labeled critics as “anti-nationals,” and the authorities have dealt with many rights advocates and activists with an iron fist. Rights groups have condemned the arrests as “illegal” and a “grave abuse of state power.”

(Manuel Elias/UN Photo via AP)JOHANNESBURG – In a diminished spotlight because of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading human rights defenders on Friday urged people in these fractured times to connect through politics — and vote, too. People must push back even in this socially distanced world, speakers said. U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet warned of a “crisis of governance” and a marginalization of voices that she said will only deepen grievances and harm all of society. “We are witnessing an erosion of public trust in institutions and traditional politics,” said Eamon Gilmore, the European Union’s special representative for human rights. As the global toll closed in on 1 million deaths, the U.K.’s minister for human rights, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, reminded listeners: “It’s only over when it’s over for all of us.”

At the same time, Duterte spotlighted Filipino health care workers' contribution to the virus fight at home and around the globe. Duterte, who took office in 2016, often lashes out at what he decries as international meddling in Philippine domestic affairs. Western governments and human rights groups see it as expressing justifiable alarm about an anti-drug crusade that has left more than 5,700 mostly poor suspects dead. Duterte has denied authorizing extrajudicial killings but has repeatedly and openly threatened drug dealers with death. “We firmly reject attempts to undermine” a 2016 arbitration ruling that invalidated most of China’s claims, Duterte said.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko gestures as he addresses a women's forum in Minsk, Belarus, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said late Thursday that he was putting the army on high alert and closing the country’s borders with Lithuania and Poland. But the national Border Guard Service said all border checkpoints remained open, though it said controls and inspections have been strengthened. A spokeswoman for the Polish Border Guard, Agnieszka Golias, said traffic at Poland's border with Belarus was as busy as usual. This week, Russia has sent 300 paratroopers for joint military drills with Belarusian soldiers near Brest on the border with Poland.

(BelTA Pool Photo via AP)GENEVA – A representative of Belarus, backed by Russia, China and Venezuela, tried and failed to limit speeches as the U.N.'s top human rights body held an urgent debate Friday on alleged rights violations by Belarusian authorities under President Alexander Lukashenko. Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger, the Austrian ambassador in Geneva, allowed speakers who included Lukashenko's main election challenger to continue decrying a string of alleged rights violations in Belarus. “The council’s consideration of the recent events in Belarus is timely,” U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet said in remarks delivered by her deputy. Council president Tichy-Fisslberger brushed off the appeal, and the former presidential candidate finished her statement. ___This reference corrects the spelling of the UN human rights chief’s surname on second reference.

The comments from Michelle Bachelet came in a catch-all speech to open the latest session of the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council on Monday. She also raised concerns about the human rights situation in Myanmar, Nicaragua and Venezuela, among other places on her agenda. Many see the law as Beijing’s boldest move yet to remove a legal firewall between the semi-autonomous territory of Hong Kong and the mainland’s Communist Party system. “The Hong Kong authorities have consistently stated that the law is not intended to impact negatively on the peaceful exercise of human rights by Hong Kong residents,” said Bachelet. She said her office had documented 47 killings of human rights defenders in Colombia this year.

Seven human rights experts affiliated with the U.N. raised concerns over Hong Kong's national security law in a letter addressed to Chinese authorities, saying that the law infringed on certain fundamental rights. The security law makes secessionist, subversive, or terrorist activities illegal, as well as foreign intervention in the citys internal affairs. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam has insisted that it will help bring stability back to Hong Kong after months of unrest. The security law extends beyond Hong Kong, targeting anyone overseas who violates it, although it is not clear how it would be enforced. The letter follows the first in-depth appraisal of the Hong Kong security law from the U.N. human rights system, though officials including U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet have previously expressed concerns about it.

A heavy-handed focus on countering national security threats and illegal drugs has resulted in serious human rights violations in the Philippines, including killings and arbitrary detentions, as well as the vilification of dissent, a summary of the report said. It said many of the human rights concerns have become more acute in recent years.The report, requested by the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council, is based on nearly 900 submissions as well as government input, court and police records, and interviews with victims and witnesses. Unfortunately, the report has documented deep-seated impunity for serious human rights violations, and victims have been deprived of justice for the killings of their loved ones, said U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. People who use or sell drugs do not lose their human rights, she said. The poll also stated that 73% said the number of illegal drug users had fallen since Duterte took office in mid-2016.

(AP Photo/Felipe Dana)ISLAMABAD Pakistan reported a record single-day spike in coronavirus-related deaths with 82 new fatalities and 4,688 cases that it says resulted from increased testing in the past 24 hours. ___HERES WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY ABOUT THE VIRUS OUTBREAK: The pandemic has stranded merchant ship crews at sea for months There are no secrets in India's largest slum. The country registered 9,304 new cases in yet another record single-day spike in infections, raising its totals to 216,919 cases with 6,075 deaths, the Health Ministry reported Thursday. The coastal state of Maharashtra continues to be the worst affected, with 74,860 cases and 2,587 deaths. ___MEXICO CITY -- The coronavirus toll in Mexico has soared to a new daily high, with the health department reporting 1,092 deaths.

Costa Rica became the latest country to legalize same-sex marriage early Tuesday when a ruling from its supreme court went into effect ending the country's ban. (AP Photo/Carlos Gonzalez)SAN JOSE Costa Rica became the latest country to legalize same-sex marriage early Tuesday when a ruling from its supreme court went into effect ending the country's ban. Theirs was the first legal gay marriage in Costa Rica and it was streamed live on the internet. Costa Rica is the sixth country in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, following most recently Ecuador, which allowed it last year. The Legislative Assembly did not act, so at midnight the law banning same-sex marriage was nullified.

CARACAS, Venezuela - A Venezuelan navy captain who died of suspected torture while in state custody was buried by authorities Wednesday against the family's wishes after refusing to return his body to loved ones, an attorney for relatives said. He said an autopsy indicated Acosta died of trauma. Acosta died in late June, hours after appearing in court on what the government said was suspicion of plotting to assassinate Maduro. Bachelet has said she was "shocked" by allegations that Acosta died of torture, urging Venezuelan officials to conduct an in-depth investigation. Upon her return to Geneva, Bachelet issued a scathing report accusing Venezuela's security forces of nearly 5,300 killings last year.

Sean Gallup/Getty ImagesGENEVA - GENEVA (AP) - Venezuela's government registered nearly 5,300 killings during security operations last year linked to cases of "resistance to authority," the U.N. human rights chief reported Thursday, denouncing a "shockingly high" number of extrajudicial killings. Authorities in Maduro's government tallied 5,287 killings during security operations that were classified as cases of "resistance to authority," plus another 1,569 this year through May 19, the report said. "The incidence of alleged extrajudicial killings by security forces, particularly the special forces (FAES), in the context of security operations has been shockingly high," Bachelet's office said. Tamara Taraciuk Broner, senior Americas researcher at Human Rights Watch, praised the report for exposing human rights violations like the excessive use of force, torture and extra-judicial killings. Bachelet was set to present her report Friday to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, where Venezuela will have a right of reply___Smith reported from Caracas, Venezuela.

In the middle-class streets of Eastern Caracas, protesters gathered in large numbers at the call of opposition leader Juan Guaido. UN High Commissioner on Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who oversaw the report, they said, had simply been following a script written by Washington. The OHCHR reportIssued one day earlier, the 16-page report has renewed longstanding criticisms of the embattled Maduro regime. It was created by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), a group Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza has repeatedly criticized as "biased." In 2018 alone, 5,287 Venezuelans were killed while "resisting authority," the report said, citing the Maduro administration's own figures.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (center) speaks at the Balcn del Pueblo of the Miraflores Government Palace on Jan. 23, 2019, in Caracas, Venezuela. CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) - A week before he died, a Venezuelan navy captain was arrested and accused of plotting to remove embattled President Nicolas Maduro from power. Rafael Ramon Acosta Arevalo's death Saturday remain a mystery in a country marred by political and humanitarian crises. In recent months, dozens of active and retired military officers have been detained by Venezuelan counterintelligence officers on treason charges. But Acosta is the first known military officer to die in custody amid allegations he was tortured.