The UN Human Rights Council today condemned Burma's violent crackdown on protests and urged an immediate investigation of the situation in the country.

Iran should immediately halt the execution of children, the UN’s top human rights official said today.

UN human rights chief Louise Arbour warned yesterday that unpunished human rights violations — including “pandemic” sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo — are keeping central Africa on the brink of another major conflict.

Somalia has agreed to allow the United Nations human rights commissioner to investigate allegations that recent fighting violated international law.

A tape purportedly from the kidnappers of journalist Alan Johnston is being looked at by the BBC.

The leader of Zimbabwe’s main opposition party and about 50 other democracy activists – many of them bandaged and bruised – were taken to hospitals following a court appearance today, two days after they were arrested and reportedly beaten for trying to attend an opposition meeting.

The UN Human Rights Council today refrained from criticising the Sudanese government for atrocities in the western Sudan region of Darfur.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today told the UN Human Rights Council to immediately address the escalating atrocities in Darfur by sending an independent team of investigators to the volatile Sudanese region.

Promised elections to restore democracy to Fiji after this week’s coup could be more than two years away, the military-installed prime minister said today.

The UN Human Rights Council will hold an emergency meeting on the Darfur crisis following a request to do so today by 29 countries, UN spokesman Rolando Gomez said.

United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan urged the global body’s human rights watchdog today to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impartially and said it was time to focus attention on ”graver” crises such as Darfur.

Saddam Hussein’s death sentence was celebrated by some as justice deserved or even divine, but denounced by others as a political ploy before critical US mid-term congressional elections.

The top UN human rights official today urged Iraq to ensure former President Saddam Hussein a fair appeals process, and to refrain from executing him even if the death penalty is upheld.

A global situation where physical, sexual and psychological violence is being perpetrated against children on a daily basis has been revealed in a UN report.

The United Nations said today that Sudanese government forces have indiscriminately bombed areas of North Darfur in recent weeks, forcing hundreds of civilians to flee their homes.

The new UN Human Rights Council offers a “great new chance” for the United Nations to renew its struggle for global human rights, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said today.

The UN High Commissioner has said it's unacceptable for countries to turn a blind eye to extra-ordinary rendition flights.

The UN human rights chief warned that the global ban on torture is becoming a casualty of the “war on terror,” singling out the reported US practices of sending terrorist suspects to other countries and holding prisoners in secret detention.

Uzbek officials took foreign diplomats and journalists on a lightning-quick tour of Andijan today, showing them a prison and the local administration building and arranging meetings with local officials, as the top UN human rights official called for an independent investigation.

THE UN's human rights chief has warned that the vision and promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are under considerable strain.

chief Margaret Hassan’s murder by her kidnappers in Iraq has underscored the difficulty for even seasoned relief workers to provide aid to Iraqis.

Aid chief Margaret Hassan’s execution by her kidnappers in Iraq has underscored the difficulty for even seasoned relief workers to provide aid to Iraqis.

Sexual violence against women is taking place “on a massive scale” in wars and in countries emerging from conflict and the international response remains inadequate, one of the UN’s highest-ranking women told the UN Security Council.

Sudan is not afraid of a UN resolution threatening sanctions over the violence in Darfur, President Omar el-Bashir has been quoted as saying.