ARTICLES RELATING TO
UNHRC
UN investigators into rights abuses in Syria have stressed they had no conclusive proof that either side in the conflict has used chemical weapons.
Aid organisation Oxfam has urged the UN Security Council to help improve humanitarian access to war-torn Syria, saying more funds are needed as the "catastrophe worsens”.
Almost 35 000 Syrian refugees have returned home from Jordan since their country's conflict broke out in March 2011, but a larger number joined the exodus last month alone.
Crowding in Iraqi camps for Syrians, who have fled their war-ravaged homeland, is raising the risk of disease, the UN refugee agency has warned.
More than half of the estimated 300 000 Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon are not receiving the medical treatment they need because of high costs, Doctors Without Borders says.
South Africa's report to the UN Human Rights Commission has focused on issues involving socio-economic and cultural rights.
Syria boycotted a hearing by the United Nations' main anti-torture body avoiding a grilling over its crackdown on civilians during a year-old uprising.
The UNHCR says nearly 5 000 people are displaced after clashes in DRC's North Kivu province.
The Israeli foreign ministry has decided to cut contact with the UN Human Rights Council after it said last week it would investigate Israeli settlements, a spokesperson says.
South Africa urgently needs laws that criminalise torture in its penal system if it is to prevent the type of abuses the country was chastised for by the UN Human Rights Committee, prison activists say.
Syria's opposition is urging the Arab League to stand strong against President Bashar al-Assad's regime as the United Nations said its crackdown on dissent has left more than 3 500 people dead.
More than 2 900 people have been killed in Syria since the start of a crackdown on anti-regime protests, the UN says a day before its human rights body is to discuss the situation.
Some 2 200 people have died in the Syrian regime's ongoing crackdown on protesters.
A UN envoy has confirmed that a video allegedly depicting Sri Lanka troops executing Tamil Tigers was authentic, and that the actions were definitive war crimes.
The UN Human Rights Commission has voiced fears that Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's government will plunge the country into civil war.
