Middle East

The UN labour agency, ILO, says it is becoming increasingly concerned about working conditions in Iraq, where temperatures have soared to 50 degrees Celsius in recent weeks.

Every effort must be made to support the Yazidi community in Iraq, the United Nations said on Wednesday, marking eight years since the extremist group ISIL launched a brutal assault on the religious minority. 

A cohort of independent UN experts has called on the Human Rights Council to launch an international investigation into the massive explosion in Beirut two year ago, with a view to securing justice for those who died and were injured.

The landmark truce in Yemen, which has been holding since April, has been renewed for an additional two months through 2 October, UN Special Envoy for the country, Hans Grundberg, announced on Tuesday. 

Secretary-General António Guterres is “following with concern” ongoing protests in Iraq that have injured many people, according to his deputy spokesperson, Farhan Haq.

Ten years since Jordan’s Za’atari camp opened its doors to 80,000 displaced Syrians, poverty now affects an increasing number of residents who face an uncertain future, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday.

The deadly shelling of a mountain resort in northern Iraq last week represented a shocking disregard for civilian life and international obligations on civilian protection, the UN Special Representative for the country, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, told an emergency session of the Security Council on Tuesday. 

While specific developments within the wider context of the conflict involving Israel and Palestine fluctuate, “the structural reality has not changed,” the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) informed the Security Council on Tuesday.

Australian authorities must speed up the repatriation of their nationals held in detention centres in Syria following the recent confirmation of the death of a Sydney teenager at a facility in the northeast, UN human rights experts said on Monday.  

Lebanon’s women-led cooperatives are helping communities to cope with the country’ recent wave of crises: the COVID-19 pandemic, the financial crisis, and the notorious August 2021 Beirut Port Explosion.

The dire impact of Lebanon’s unrelenting socio-economic crisis prompted the UN Special Coordinator to warn the Security Council behind closed doors on Thursday, that the country stands at “a crossroad between rebound or collapse”.

The historic UN-brokered truce in Yemen has largely held for nearly four months, and Special Envoy Hans Grundberg on Thursday urged the Government and Houthi rebels to work towards renewing the “transformational” agreement, which expires on 2 August. 

The UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), has strongly condemned the shelling of a mountain resort in the Kurdistan region of Dohuk Governorate on Wednesday, which reportedly killed eight tourists and wounded more than 20 others. In a statement issued on Thursday, the UN chief added his condemnation and called for a prompt investigation into the shelling. 

Afghans caught up in the devastating earthquake that hit the country on June 22, killing more than 1,000 and injured over 6,000 people, are sharing their traumatic stories.

The conviction of an Iranian official by a Swedish court for his part in the mass execution and torture of political prisoners was welcomed on Friday by a top UN-appointed independent rights expert.