UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

More than 200 mass graves containing thousands of bodies have been discovered in Iraqi regions formerly controlled by Islamic State (IS) extremists, the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) and the UN Human Rights Office in Geneva, said on Tuesday.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, is demanding the government of Burundi apologize for its inflammatory, personal attacks against members of the Independent Commission of Inquiry, impugning their credibility.

The UN has hailed the award of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize jointly to UN Goodwill Ambassador Nadia Murad and a doctor in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Denis Mukwege.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says no fewer than 262 journalists were jailed in 2017 for “doing their work”.

Burundi’s government has banned three United Nations human rights experts from entering the East African state, according to a letter released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Wednesday.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has condemned an Egyptian court’s confirmation of death sentences on 75 people on Saturday.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, has said that journalists’ conviction in Myanmar was a message that press “cannot operate fearlessly”.

The UN human rights chief urged Facebook Wednesday to more proactively address hate speech but warned against excessive regulation, after US President Donald Trump accused tech giants’ platforms of bias against him.

Former United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan will receive a state funeral and burial in Ghana on September 13, the Ghanaian president said on Friday, calling it "a major event for our country".

The flag at UN headquarters in New York is flying at half-mast on Saturday as the intergovernmental organisation marks the death of its former Secretary-General, Kofi Annan.

Counting was under way Tuesday in Zimbabwe after a strong turnout in the first election since long-ruling leader Robert Mugabe was ousted from power.

The Senate has passed the bill for second reading despite subsisting court case and strong opposition to it.

Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa on Wednesday said Zimbabwe's election was threatened by fraud and accused electoral authorities of bias, but said his MDC party would not boycott the vote.

UN Special Representative on Sexual Violence and Conflict, Ms Pramila Patten, has recounted what she termed “horrific testimonies” by rape survivors in war-torn South Sudan.

The UN has accused South Sudan government forces and allies of killing 232 civilians and raping 120 women and girls in opposition-held villages.

The organization urged the Human Rights Council to adopt a resolution to “condemn in the strongest possible terms the ongoing killings and revenge attacks on innocent Nigerians and residents by suspected herdsmen and/or unknown persons as well as the ongoing impunity enjoyed by suspected perpetrators and groups that have suggested these atrocities may be retaliatory killings.”

Torture in any form, is absolutely unacceptable and can never be justified, UN said on the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, urging great support for victims worldwide.

Security forces in Venezuela have carried out hundreds of unjustified killings without any apparent consequences, the United Nations has said in a new report, drawing a rejection from government officials in Caracas.