UN High Commissioner for Refugees

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Venezuela to UN Rights Agency: You Have 72 Hours to Get Out

Agency had criticized arrest of prominent human rights lawyer

(Newser) - After the United Nations human rights agency expressed concern about the arrest of a prominent human rights advocate, Nicolas Maduro's government ordered the agency's office in Venezuela's capital to close and said its 13 staff members had 72 hours to get out of the country. Foreign Affairs...

Angelina Jolie Leaves Post as UN Envoy After 21 Years

Actress has expressed frustration with efforts to end sexual violence in wars

(Newser) - Angelina Jolie and the United Nations' refugee agency are parting ways after more than two decades. The American actress and the agency announced she was "moving on" from her role as the agency's special envoy "to engage on a broader set of humanitarian and human rights issues"...

ISIS Reportedly Captures 3K Fleeing Iraqis

Several may have already been killed: UNHCR

(Newser) - The UN refugee agency says it has received reports that the Islamic State may have captured up to 3,000 Iraqis who were fleeing violence and that 12 of them may have been killed, reports AP . In a report published Thursday, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the internally...

Kickstarter Will Help You Help Refugees

Crowdfunding site teams up with White House

(Newser) - Kickstarter is crowdfunding for Syria, at the request of the White House, which asked if the crowdfunding website could find ways for the US public to help Syrian refugees, the Guardian reports. The result: this special Kickstarter page launched Tuesday, through which people can donate money that will go to...

UN: Central Americans Fleeing to US Are Refugees

Agency pushes for regional agreement

(Newser) - United Nations officials are pushing for many of the Central Americans fleeing to the US to be treated as refugees displaced by armed conflict, a designation meant to increase pressure on the United States to accept tens of thousands of people currently ineligible for asylum. Officials with the UN High...

There Haven't Been This Many Refugees Since WWII

More than 50M displaced by violence, says UN

(Newser) - For the first time since the World War II era, the number of people forced from their homes worldwide has surged past 50 million, the United Nations refugee agency says. Syrians fleeing the bloodletting at home and a fast-growing web of other crises across the world accounted for the spike...

UN: East Ukraine a Human Rights Mess

Tatars being oppressed, freedom of speech curtailed

(Newser) - Human rights abuses are escalating in Ukraine's contested East, the UN warned in a report today. It's the second monthly assessment of the situation, the BBC reports, and there's been an "alarming deterioration" since the first. The lowlights include:
  • Minority Tatars in Crimea are facing harassment
...

Syrian Rebels Recruit New Fighters at Refugee Camp

Jordan and the UN claim they're unaware

(Newser) - Syrain rebels in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan freely acknowledge recruiting fighters in the camp, trying to bolster rebel ranks in the face of stepped up offensives by President Bashar al-Assad's forces just across the border in southern Syria. Recruiting is banned in Zaatari, and the rebel activities...

Ikea's Latest: Refugee Shelters
 Ikea's Latest: Refugee Shelters 

Ikea's Latest: Refugee Shelters

Company's philanthropic arm plans major upgrade from tents

(Newser) - It sounds like the set-up to a really bad joke—the world's refugees are going to start using shelters from Ikea. But the idea actually has the potential to do a world of good, reports the Christian Science Monitor . The shelters from the Ikea Foundation, the furniture maker's...

There Was a New Refugee Every 4.1 Seconds in 2012

Now 45.2M displaced people in the world—most in developing countries

(Newser) - About 7.6 million people became refugees in 2012—that's one every 4.1 seconds—bringing the total number of displaced people in the world to 45.2 million, the highest figure since 1994, reports al-Jazeera . A new report from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees...

UN: It's Illegal to Force-Feed Gitmo Hunger Strikers

High Commissioner of Human Rights says US breaking international convention

(Newser) - The US is breaking international law by force-feeding Guantanamo detainees to keep them alive as they hunger strike, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said today. "If it’s perceived as torture or inhuman treatment—and it’s the case, it’s painful—then it is prohibited by...

Syria's Refugee Tally: 1M
 Syria's Refugee Tally: 1M 

Syria's Refugee Tally: 1M

And half of them are children, according to UN report

(Newser) - A million people have now fled Syria to avoid the war raging there—and half of them are children, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees reported today . "Syria is spiraling towards full-scale disaster," commissioner António Guterres said. "We are doing everything we can to help, but...

Congo Massacres Claim Hundreds: Report

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights calls killings 'beyond comprehension'

(Newser) - Hundreds of civilians, most of them women and children, appear to have been massacred by rival armed factions in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay revealed today. While Pillay said that reports were still being verified, she added that "the sheer...

Syria Launches Ground Assault to 'Clean' Baba Amr

Western journalists trapped inside city

(Newser) - Syrian ground troops advanced on Homs today, indicating that the regime was about to launch a ground assault to take the restive city. One Syrian official told the AP that the rebel-held Baba Amr neighborhood would be "cleaned" in a matter of hours. Three western journalists are still trapped...

In Homs, Opposition Reports 'Indiscriminate Slaughter'
In Homs, Opposition Reports 'Indiscriminate Slaughter'
Syrian uprising

In Homs, Opposition Reports 'Indiscriminate Slaughter'

UN raises uprising's death toll to 3,500, calls figure conservative

(Newser) - Syria’s uprising got even bloodier today as government forces continued their assault on Homs, clashing with military defectors and other opposition gunmen. Opposition activists declared the city a “humanitarian disaster area,” estimating that in the past week more than 100 have been killed. “Indiscriminate slaughter is...

Qatar Deports Alleged Rape Victim Back to Libya

Iman al-Obeidy says they beat her and forced her onto plane

(Newser) - Qatar has sent Iman al-Obeidy back to Libya kicking and screaming, despite objections from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Obeidy tells CNN that Qatari guards took her and her parents from their hotel in Doha; took their cell phones, laptops, and money; beat her and handcuffed her; and then...

Humanitarian Crisis Unfolds on Libya's Borders

Nearly 100,000 people have fled fighting to Egypt, Tunisia

(Newser) - The violence and unrest gripping Libya is creating a humanitarian crisis, as almost 100,000 people have fled the fighting for Egypt and Tunisia, reports the New York Times . About half of the refugees are Egyptians, but those fleeing includes Libyans, Chinese, and others, mostly poorer laborers. "We call...

Don't Forget Iraqi Refugees: Brangelina

Stars visit with displaced people in Syria

(Newser) - Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are in Syria, using their powers for good. The celebrity übercouple visited Iraqi refugees in Damascus today in an attempt to keep the lowest-profile victims of the war from falling off the radar, People reports. Jolie, a goodwill ambassador for the UN's refugee agency,...

Wolfowitz: We Must Help North Korea's Refugees

(Newser) - When President Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak meet today, they will discuss a host of security and economic issues, but Paul Wolfowitz hopes they take some time out for a purely humanitarian concern: North Korea’s refugees. Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans have fled to China, but...

UN Official Kidnapped in Pakistan

No leads yet in refugee worker's abduction

(Newser) - An American working with a UN refugee agency in southwestern Pakistan was kidnapped today by gunmen who killed his driver, reports the Times of London. The attack occurred as the official from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which aids Afghan refugees in the city of Quetta, headed to...

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