Attacks in the northeastern city killed or injured more than 190 people in September alone, said Matthias Schmale, the UN’s top aid coordinator in Ukraine.
“One thought that goes through my mind is the mental trauma people are suffering from these repeated attacks,” he continued. “In September alone there were 53 strikes in Kharkov. That’s not normal. This should never be accepted as normal.”
Kherson strike
The development follows a deadly attack on a market in the city of Kherson on Tuesday, which killed and injured more civilians, and a week ago on a hospital in Sumy, also in northeastern Ukraine.
In a related development, the UN World Food Program (WFP) announced that it has signed an agreement with the Zaporizhia city government to support a school meals program.
The deal means the UN agency will provide meals for 14,000 students studying in 71 underground schools in the city for the rest of the academic year.
There must be justice for people of African descent who have died in police custody
The UN human rights chief has stressed the importance of ensuring that the families of people of African descent who have died in police custody see justice done.
Volker Türk appealed to the Council for Human Rights in Geneva during a debate on the changes countries must make to prevent excessive use of force and other human rights violations by law enforcement.
“Around the world, the scourge of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance continues to rage,” Mr Türk said.
He demanded justice for seven people from the diaspora whose deaths are symbolic of the need to reform the “institutional, structural and historical root causes of systemic racism,” before calling on Luana Barbosa dos Reis Santos, João Pedro Matos Pinto, Hanner García Palomino, Adama mentioned. Traore, Kevin Clarke, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
There is no end to discrimination
The UN rights chief reported persistent racial discrimination and abuse around the world, including in the Americas, where women and girls of African descent experienced “profound disparities” in access to sexual and reproductive health care, resulting in high rates of maternal mortality .
In Australia, Mr Türk said young South Sudanese Australians have been victims of racial profiling, racist abuse in public and media vilification, while in Brazil women of African descent have faced particularly high levels of gender-based violence and murder of lesbian women. , bisexual, transgender and intersex women.
In Europe, some Muslim women of African descent wearing religious clothing have reported being targets of insulting gestures, verbal insults and physical attacks, the High Commissioner said, adding that in Libya, migrant women and girls of African descent are at particular risk of violence.
UN experts are calling on the world football body to respect international law regarding violations in Israel
Independent experts from the UN are appeal to the powerful body that governs world football – or soccer – FIFA, to demand respect for international law from Israeli football clubs and their behavior towards the occupied Palestinian territories.
The call comes as many teams in the Israel Football Association (IFA) have shown racist behavior towards Palestinian people and players in recent years, according to the seven experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.
The experts believe that this “behavior” should be recognized in the context of Israel’s “unlawful presence” in Palestine. They explained that these acts are a “strong violation of international law,” based on a International Court of Justice‘s (ICJ) advice issued on July 19 this year.
“Legally, this is an act of aggression that is against the law jus ad bellum. These are serious violations of the (Fourth Geneva) Convention and amount to various crimes among the Statute of Rome”, said the experts.
‘Non-deviating standards’
The UN experts urged FIFA’s ruling council to investigate the matter at a meeting in October “to ensure that its decisions comply with non-derogable standards of international law” .
“We remind FIFA that international human rights law, which includes both the right to self-determination and the prohibition of racial discrimination and apartheid, applies to private international organizations, especially those with global jurisdiction and mandates such as themselves,” they said. .
The experts say the football association must ensure that human rights are respected and that self-regulation in sport does not harm these rights.
They also ask FIFA to implement and promote a zero-tolerance policy that prohibits discrimination and racism against Palestinians by clubs and players in Israel.
Independent Special Rapporteurs and working group members are not UN staff, do not receive a salary for their work and do not represent any government or organization.
