Human Rights Council

Daughter of former Gaza hostage confronts UN over UNRWA funding despite Hamas ties

UNRWA was founded in 1949 and operates in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, providing humanitarian aid and education for Palestinians.

|ByMAYA ZANGER-SHAMIR
Neta Heiman Mina, whose mother was held hostage in Gaza for nearly 2 months, speaks to a UN human rights panel on September 15, 2026.
Palestinians walk past a destroyed Israeli armored vehicle left behind by the Israeli army during the recent war, in the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza City, September 7, 2026.

UN human rights chief accuses Israel of war crimes following remains discovered under Gaza rubble

He claimed that the discoveries revived concerns raised in a 2024 UN report that found Israeli strikes on residential buildings during the early weeks of the war may have violated humanitarian law.

|ByREUTERS
The UN Charter was not intended to create a supranational government, but an organization with limited powers dependent on the good faith of its sovereign member states.PremiumPremium

The United Nations has drifted beyond its charter - it is time to rethink it - opinion

As political majorities increasingly push the UN beyond the limits of its Charter, institutional renewal has become an urgent necessity

|ByALAN BAKER
Protesters hold signs outside the Royal Courts of Justice, after High Court judges ruled the British government’s decision to designate pro‑Palestinian group Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation unlawful, in London, Britain, February 13, 2026.

UN rights office says US terror designation of Palestine Action threatens free speech

Palestine Action has targeted Israel-linked defence companies in Britain, especially Israel's largest defence firm Elbit Systems, often blocking entrances or spraying red paint.

|ByREUTERS

UNHRC calls for arms embargo against Israel, asks it to prevent genocide

The resolution did not mention Hamas or condemn it for the invasion of Israel on October 7, in which 1,200 people were killed and 253 seized as hostages.

APRIL 5, 2024ByTOVAH LAZAROFF
Deputy Minister, Alvin Botes delivers a National Statement at the Annual High Level Panel on Human Rights Mainstreaming under the theme “Thirty years of implementation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child: challenges and opportunities”, at the UNHRC, Geneva.

Mahsa Amini's death in Iran custody was 'unlawful', says UN mission

United Nations fact-finding mission finds that the death of Iranian national Mahasa Amini in 2022 was caused by violence, systematic violence against women is still occurring throughout the country.

MARCH 18, 2024ByREUTERS
Women hold a picture of Mahsa Amini during a sit-in following her death, at Martyrs' Square in Beirut, Lebanon September 21, 2022

Iran’s FM in Geneva for UN, ICRC meetings

Iran, which backs Hamas and supported the October 7 massacre in Israel by Hamas, now says that it wants to see political efforts to end the “Gaza crisis.”

FEBRUARY 26, 2024BySETH J. FRANTZMAN
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian speaks during a news conference in Tehran, Iran, March 19, 2023.

Human rights in Russia have 'significantly deteriorated,' UN expert warns

"Russian authorities have severely curtailed the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression, both online and offline."

SEPTEMBER 18, 2023ByREUTERS
A sticker that reads "Russia is a terrorist state" is attached to a flag of Ukraine during a gathering to protest against a pro-Russia demonstration amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine in Frankfurt, Germany, September 18, 2022

UN removes 15 companies from blacklist for halting settlement activity

The UN list was limited in scope due to budget restrictions and the rights office was only able to review the original list of 112 companies.

JUNE 30, 2023ByTOVAH LAZAROFF
SETTLERS HURL stones at Palestinians during the annual harvest season, near the settlement of Yitzhar in 2020.

Amid criticism, Columbia University announces a new research center in Tel Aviv

For decades, Columbia has been the site of heated debate among both faculty and students over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

APRIL 5, 2023ByJACKIE HAJDENBERG/JTA
Columbia University is set to launch a Global Center in Tel Aviv despite faculty opposition.

UN human rights chief calls on Israel to temporarily halt judicial reform

One of the bill's key components will add restrictions on the judicial review of Basic Laws.

FEBRUARY 21, 2023ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Volker Turk holds a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela January 28, 2023.

Israel accuses UN human rights chief of blaming terror attacks on victims

Israel stated that the Geneva human rights community remained silent on the shooting in Neveh Ya'acov for a week.

FEBRUARY 4, 2023ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Volker Turk holds a news conference in Caracas, Venezuela January 28, 2023

UNHRC discriminates against Israel, should send rapporteur home - opinion

Appointing a UNHRC rapporteur to Israel is an outrageous and totally fictitious antisemitic assessment of the relationship between our Arab citizens and residents, and the Jewish Israeli public.

JANUARY 31, 2023ByWALTER BINGHAM
MICHAEL LYNK, then-special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, attends a session of the Human Rights Council at the UN in Geneva, in 2019.

Discrimination, demonization and delegitimization has no place at the UN - opinion

Navi Pillay wrote a letter to the president of the Human Rights Council, alleging that her colleagues were being "deliberately misquoted."

DECEMBER 17, 2022ByDANIEL S. MARIASCHIN, DAVID J. MICHAELS
NAVI PILLAY, who heads the newest UN ‘commission of inquiry’ on Israel, has been called out for prejudice, say the writers.