The Special Rapporteur will be speaking at the Dialogue on "Achieving the MDGs: Slum-upgrading and Affordable Housing" on 20 June 2006.
The World Urban Forum III gives us the opportunity to reflect on the challenges facing the world community as it grapples with the global housing and living conditions crisis. These challenges also need to be tackled in the context of realization of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which should serve to focus worldwide efforts in overcoming the critical deficiencies in global development,

The following statement was issued today by Leandro Despouy, the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers:
It has been reliably reported that the Taliban claim to have carried out a public execution of an alleged murderer following a trial by a local Taliban court, in Ququr village in the district headquarters town of Gizab in Daikundi. The UN expert on judicial independence, Leandro Despouy, today condemned these developments in very strong terms. The execution of Badshah Khan reportedly took place early last month in

The following statement was issued today by Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions; Leila Zerrougui, the Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; Manfred Nowak, the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture; and Vitit Muntarbhorn, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea:
Four United Nations human rights experts today expressed their dismay at the refusal of the Government of the Democratic

The Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler, is deeply concerned by the drastic food cuts for millions of Sudanese as offrom May 2006. The United Nations World Food Programme has announced that it has been forced to cut food rations for millions of Sudanese following a huge shortfall in requested funds.
Millions of people in the Western Sudanese region of Darfur and Eastern Sudan who are already vulnerable to continued insecurity and displacement will receive daily rations of 1,050 kilocalories, only half of the minimum daily requirement of 2,100 kilocalories per person.

"The Nepalese Government must immediately repeal its 'shoot-on-sight' policy for dealing with demonstrators", according to a United Nations human rights expert.
Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, said that such a policy represented a clear violation of international human rights law. "The Government is, in effect, instructing its forces to shoot innocent people, in complete disregard for the right to life. In particular, such an approach reflects no attempt to balance the rights to political participation and

The following statement was issued today by the Special Rapporteur on the right to education of the United Nations, Vernor Muñoz Villalobos:
In my capacity as Special Rapporteur on the right to education, I wish to express my condolences, outrage and solidarity to the people of the Kunar province in Afghanistan for the loss of human life and serious injuries as a result of the terrorist attack by rocket on the Salabagh School in Asadabad.

I am deeply concerned that schools, especially girls' schools, seem to be systematically targeted by terrorist groups

(Chamber A)

The Committee on the Rights of the Child today reviewed the second periodic report of Azerbaijan on how that country is implementing the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

In opening remarks to the Committee, Khalaf Khalafov, Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, said the insurance of basic human rights and fundamental freedoms was the supreme goal of the State in Azerbaijan. In order to achieve this goal and to create appropriate legal mechanisms, all necessary measures were being taken in

Professor Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions issued the following statement on 6 December in Colombo:
Philip Alston, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, today called upon the parties to the conflict in Sri Lanka to take more determined action to tackle the killings that have plagued the country in recent days.

"The failure to effectively investigate

The Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on the situation in Myanmar, Mr. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, deeply regrets the further prolongation in the house arrest of the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy and the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has been held hostage without charge or trial for over ten years by the Government of Myanmar.

On the eve of another phase of the National Convention, many of those who should be in attendance find themselves behind bars. That legitimate political stake-holders are locked out of the political