The peace dividend from last year’s ceasefire in South Sudan is palpable, but political elites need to follow the example set by local communities on the ground if lasting progress is to be achieved, said the top UN official in the country on Tuesday.

Surveillance technology should be banned immediately until “effective” national or international controls are put in place to lessen its harmful impact, a UN-appointed independent rights expert said on Tuesday.

While women’s rights have advanced over the decades, gender inequalities and other fundamental human rights violations within families persist, according to a flagship study released on Tuesday, from the UN’s gender empowerment agency.

Monday’s top stories include: human rights issues in Syria, Iraq and the Occupied Palestinian Territory; a global forum to find coordinated solutions to the plight of refugees worldwide; the election of the new head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

The looting and destruction of UN food relief agency premises and property in Sudan, has prompted the UN-African Union mission in Darfur (UNAMID) and UN Country Team, to condemn the assault as a “blatant violation of international humanitarian law”.

With “no media access” in parts of the country and “serious restrictions” on humanitarian organizations, the United Nations expert on the situation of human rights in Myanmar urged the Government on Monday to “reverse its decision” and lift the mobile internet ban.

Thousands of suspected foreign ISIL terrorist fighters and their families who are being held in detention in Syria and Iraq, must be treated fairly by their captors and taken back by their home countries, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Monday.

On International Widow’s Day, marked on Sunday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres is asking everyone to reflect on the “economic hardship and increased vulnerability” of these bereaved women and ensure “they are not left out or left behind”. 

Speaking at the end of the first-ever official mission to Venezuela by a UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet called on the Government to release all those detained for peacefully protesting and announced that a team from her office would remain in Caracas to monitor the human rights situation. 

Cracking down on Catholic Church activities, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of Orthodox and Christian congregation members in Eritrea, prompted a call from a UN independent rights expert on Friday for the Government to respect citizens' freedom of religion and to “release those who have been imprisoned for their religious beliefs”.

Acts of violence against civilians, humanitarian workers and civilian infrastructure in Idlib are “deplorable”, the United Nations Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for the Syria Crisis said on Friday, condemning them “in the strongest terms”.    

A landmark international agreement banning violence and harassment in the workplace has been applauded by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, after it was adopted on Friday at the International Labour Organization’s Centenary Conference in Geneva.

In an interview with UN News, Special Rapporteur Agnes Callamard recounted her nearly week-long mission to Turkey searching for the truth surrounding the death of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last October.

The UN Security Council must “seize this moment” presented by the current turmoil in Sudan, to provide justice at long last for the victims of violence in Darfur, and those who have suffered at the hands of the brutal military crackdown earlier this month.  

Responsibility for the killing of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi lies with “high-level officials” of the monarchy, a UN-appointed independent investigator said on Wednesday, in a renewed call for full State accountability for the crime. 

Sexual violence in conflict is a “threat to our collective security” and a “stain on our common humanity”, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said in his message commemorating the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict, on Wednesday. 

Unabating violence, destruction and a downward sprial in overall conditions for the desperate people trapped in north-western Syria’s Idlib were in the spotlight as the United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator told the Security Council on Tuesday that “we are faced with a humanitarian disaster unfolding before our eyes”.

This Tuesday, top stories include: the UN’s war on hate speech; a surge in ethnic violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; the ‘invisible pandemic’ of antimicrobial resistance; UN peacekeeping Commanders’ meeting at the Security Council; and a new campaign to encourage healthy and sustainable food choices.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has declared war on hate speech, telling Member States on Tuesday, that we all need to “do better at looking out for each other”.

An independent review into how the UN System operated in Myanmar in the years leading up to the mass exodus of the Rohingya following serious human rights abuses, has concluded there were “systemic and structural failures” that prevented a unified strategy from being implemented.