Joint Civil Society statement on Humanitarian Disarmament by HRW, Amnesty, Center for Civilians in Conflict   Oct. 2025   One in three organizations have suspended or shut down programmes on ending violence against women due to funding cuts. (UN Women, agencies)   More than a third of organizations surveyed, 34 per cent, have suspended or shut down programmes to end violence against women and girls and more than 40 per cent have scaled back or closed life-saving services such as shelters, legal aid, psychosocial and healthcare support due to immediate funding gaps. 78 per cent reported reduced access to essential services for survivors, while 59 per cent perceived an increase in impunity and normalization of violence. Almost one in four said they had to suspend or completely halt interventions designed to prevent violence before it occurs.   “Women’s rights organizations are the backbone of progress on violence against women, yet they are being pushed to the brink. We cannot allow funding cuts to erase decades of hard-won gains. We call on governments and donors to ringfence, expand, and make funding more flexible. Without sustained investment, violence against women and girls will only rise”, said Kalliopi Mingeirou, Chief of the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls section, UN Women.   Violence against women and girls remains one of the most widespread human rights violations worldwide. An estimated 736 million women—almost one in three—have experienced physical or sexual violence, most often at the hands of an intimate partner.   Earlier this year, UN Women warned that most women-led organizations in crisis settings were facing severe funding cuts, with nearly half at risk of closure—a warning now echoed in the findings of At Risk and Underfunded.   The report’s findings also highlight that only five per cent of organizations anticipate being able to sustain operations for two years or longer. 85 per cent predict severe backsliding in laws and protections for women and girls, and 57 per cent report serious concerns about rising risks for women human rights defenders.   Funding shortfalls are happening alongside a growing backlash against women’s rights in one in four countries. As organizations lose funding, many are forced to focus only on basic services instead of long-term advocacy that drives real change.   At Risk and Underfunded comes as the world marks 30 years since the Beijing declaration and platform for action, a progressive roadmap agreed by Governments to achieve gender equality and women’s rights, that had ending violence against women at its heart.   http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/press-release/2025/10/one-in-three-organizations-have-suspended-or-shut-down-programmes-on-ending-violence-against-women-due-to-funding-cuts   Oct. 2025   In advance of the October 2025 UN Security Council Open Debate on Women, Peace and Security (WPS), this open letter was sent to UN Member States on behalf of 661 civil society signatories from 106 countries working on issues related to gender equality and women’s rights, peace and security, human rights, humanitarian assistance, and protection of civilians. The letter calls on the Security Council and Member States to take decisive action to defend the fundamental tenets of the WPS agenda.   http://www.globalr2p.org/publications/2025-open-letter-to-the-un-in-advance-of-the-annual-open-debate-on-wps/ http://www.prio.org/research/topics/gender   17 Oct. 2025   The United Nations General Assembly will convene the 80th session of its First Committee on Disarmament and International Security from October 8 to November 7, 2025. Country Delegations need to urgently take up the task of disarmament and demilitarization.   Joint Civil Society Statement on Humanitarian Disarmament, delivered by Bonnie Docherty, Senior Arms Advisor Human Rights Watch:   I am pleased to deliver this joint statement on behalf of nearly 100 civil society campaigns and organizations.   Humanitarian disarmament has made a critical difference over the past three decades in saving countless lives around the world and in setting norms that endure over time.   The people centered approach aims to prevent and remediate arms-inflicted human suffering and environmental harm, and it has shown its ability to weather geopolitical tempests.   Since last year’s First Committee meeting, humanitarian disarmament has faced attacks on multiple fronts that have challenged the progress it has made. The use of antipersonnel landmines and cluster munitions as well as threats of the use of nuclear weapons highlight the ongoing dangers posed by internationally banned weapons.   Some states have decided to withdraw from the Mine Ban Treaty and Convention on Cluster Munitions, further endangering civilians due to the prospect of additional new use. The failure of states to comply with the Arms Trade Treaty and implement the commitments of the Political Declaration on the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas has meant civilians have not been protected in current armed conflicts.   Progress on a treaty on autonomous weapons systems is not keeping pace with technological developments.   Nevertheless, while not a panacea, humanitarian disarmament has helped reduce the human cost of weapons for decades and will continue to do so.   It has made a concrete difference in the protection of civilians by stigmatizing and decreasing use of certain weapons, reducing stockpiles, and advancing clearance and victim assistance measures.   In the process, it has overcome hurdles, such as the post-9/11 world, changing governments, economic turmoil, and the evolving nature of war.   The central principles of humanitarian disarmament can both sustain this movement and ensure that it responds to today’s global challenges, including the growing disregard for the rule of law and financial shortfalls for the humanitarian sector. Those principles include:   A humanitarian focus: The goal of protecting civilians is a purpose that can transcend political and national differences.   A cooperative approach: States should meaningfully involve and work in partnership with each other, civil society, international organizations, and survivors in decision-making processes to benefit from their expertise and preserve the humanitarian focus.   A commitment to international law: International law, including humanitarian disarmament, creates obligations for states parties and standards that influence states and other actors outside of a treaty. States should not only create new law, but also implement, defend, and strengthen the law that already exists.   Ability to adapt: Humanitarian disarmament is adaptable, as shown by its move from conventional weapons to weapons of mass destruction and its application to new topics, such as the environment and armed conflict, the destruction of cultural heritage during conflict, and torture-free trade.   To maximize the influence of humanitarian disarmament and help it address current challenges, we urge states to:   Ensure that the core characteristics of humanitarianism, cooperation, rule of law, and adaptability guide all efforts addressing disarmament issues; Highlight the humanitarian concerns raised by problematic weapons in the course of discussions at First Committee.   Call, depending on the specific issue, for upholding the existing norms, improving implementation, and creating new or stronger law; and join and fully implement and comply with humanitarian disarmament instruments.   States should act now to push back against the threats to international law and help humanitarian disarmament achieve its full potential. Doing so is in the interest of us all.   http://reliefweb.int/report/world/joint-civil-society-statement-humanitarian-disarmament-17-oct-2025 http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/10/17/joint-civil-society-statement-on-humanitarian-disarmament http://disarmament.unoda.org/en http://humanitariandisarmament.org/2025/10/03/civil-society-demands-action-at-the-ungas-disarmament-committee/ Visit the related web page
	UN experts warn of grave abuses against Persons with Disabilities in North Korea by UN Human Rights Office, agencies Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)   Sep. 2025   DPRK: UN report finds 10 years of increased suffering, repression and fear. (OHCHR)   The human rights situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has not improved over the past decade and, in many instances, has degraded, bringing even more suffering to the population.   Covering the period following the 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry, the latest findings point to the introduction of more laws, policies and practices that are subjecting citizens to increased surveillance and control in all parts of life.   “No other population is under such restrictions in today’s world,” the report concludes, pointing to the remarks of one escapee who recounted, ‘to block the people’s eyes and ears, they strengthened the crackdowns. It was a form of control aimed at eliminating even the smallest signs of dissatisfaction or complaint’.   In 2025, the country remains more closed than at almost any other time in its history, it reads, adding: “The human rights landscape cannot be divorced from the broader isolation that the State is currently pursuing.”   A significant aspect of the report is the link between the degrading human rights situation in the DPRK, the country’s increasing self-imposed isolation and the peace and security situation on the Korean Peninsula.   “What we have witnessed is a lost decade,” UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said. “And it pains me to say that if DPRK continues on its current trajectory, the population will be subjected to more of the suffering, brutal repression and fear that they have endured for so long.”   The report says political prison camps continue to operate. The fate of the hundreds of thousands of disappeared people, including abducted foreign nationals of the Republic of Korea, Japan and elsewhere, remains unknown.   Citizens continue to be subjected to unremitting propaganda by the State for their entire lives. The right to food continues to be violated, with some State policies exacerbating hunger.   Today, the death penalty is more widely allowed by law and implemented in practice. Enjoyment of freedom of expression and access to information have significantly regressed, with the implementation of severe new punishments, including the death penalty, for a range of acts including the sharing of foreign media such as TV dramas. The surveillance of the population has become even more pervasive, aided by advances in technology.   The report, which is based on hundreds of interviews by the Office along with supporting materials, points to the increased use of forced labour in many forms, particularly so-called “shock brigades”, usually deployed to take on physically demanding and hazardous sectors such as mining and construction. They often come from poorer families and in recent years, the Government has used thousands of orphans and street children in coal mines and at other hazardous sites and for extensive hours.   The UN Human Rights Office continues to document human rights violations, some of which may amount to international crimes, while the State has no independent institutions or processes to ensure accountability and provide victims with effective remedies..   http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/09/1165837 http://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2025/09/blocking-peoples-eyes-and-ears-human-rights-violations-democratic-peoples-republic http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc6058-situation-human-rights-democratic-peoples-republic-korea-report   UN experts warn of grave abuses against Persons with Disabilities in North Korea   On 3 September the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) issued its findings on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), following the country’s review during the Committee’s latest session.   The CRPD expressed grave concern over credible reports of systematic abuses against persons with disabilities. These include accounts of infanticide of children with disabilities, sometimes carried out in medical facilities with official consent, forced abortions and sterilizations and medical experimentation.   The CRPD condemned the DPRK’s eugenic and discriminatory medical policies, which under the guise of “disability prevention,” infringe on the right to life of persons with disabilities.   The risks faced by persons with disabilities in the DPRK are further compounded by gender and age. Women and children with disabilities are subjected to gender-based and sexual violence, including coerced marriage, abduction, trafficking and rape. The CRPD noted the absence of legal protections, adequate investigative mechanisms, support services and prevention efforts, leaving survivors without access to justice or redress.   Although DPRK authorities have taken some formal steps toward protecting disability rights since 2016, including ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, hosting the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and accepting relevant recommendations during its third and fourth Universal Periodic Reviews, a significant gap remains between its international commitments and domestic implementation.   For instance, national legislation does not explicitly guarantee the right to life for persons with disabilities, including those in detention and healthcare settings, where they face heightened risks of medical neglect, starvation and abuse without independent oversight.   Human rights abuses and restrictions on fundamental freedoms targeting persons with disabilities are inseparable from the DPRK’s broader system of discrimination and persecution.   Julia Saltzman, DPRK expert at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, said, “The systematic enforcement of discriminatory and exclusionary policies affecting persons with disabilities in the DPRK is not incidental but a tool of state repression, embedded within broader patterns of indoctrination, discrimination and persecution. These policies and practices occur within a pervasive climate of gross human rights violations and impunity that often amount to crimes against humanity.”   The DPRK should amend its constitution and domestic legislation to guarantee equality and non-discrimination for persons with disabilities, as well as adopt a comprehensive anti-discrimination law that includes effective remedies and protections. The government must take a gender-sensitive approach, including measures to prevent gender-based and sexual violence, and expand access to support services for women with disabilities. It should also permit independent monitoring and grant full access to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant UN Special Procedures.   http://www.globalr2p.org/publications/atrocity-alert-no-449/ http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=2795&Lang=en http://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/crpd Visit the related web page
	View more stories