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	Starving people must not be forced to risk their lives to access food by OHCHR, OCHA, UNICEF, agencies   22 Oct. 2025   The International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled Israel must allow aid groups unimpeded access to Gaza.   The United Nations's highest court has ruled Israel must allow aid groups unimpeded access to Gaza and that its attempts to stop a UN agency delivering aid to Palestinians are illegal. The non-binding advisory opinion was requested by the UN General Assembly.   It found unanimously that Israel must ensure Palestinians were adequately supplied with the essentials of daily life, and that Gazans had been lacking those things during the war.   It also found Israel could not unilaterally decide to shut down the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the lead agency delivering aid in Gaza, or impede any other UN agencies.   he International Court of Justice (ICJ) found there was no evidence UNRWA's neutrality had been compromised and that the group needed to maintain operations because it provided so many critical services in Gaza.   The court also found Israel had an obligation to ensure the rapid and unimpeded delivery of adequate amounts of aid, and that its attempt to replace the UN aid system with a private contractor, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, was not a "realistic alternative" to the comprehensive and longstanding UN network.   The court noted "Israel's conduct in the Occupied Palestinian Territory raises serious concerns in light of its obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law".   The commissioner-general of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said the decision should spur Israel to allow the agency to operate fully again.   "There must be accountability for the killing of UNRWA staff members, for the severe mistreatment of humanitarian staff in detention and for the destruction, damage and misuse of UNRWA facilities," he said in a statement.   "⁠UNRWA is the key humanitarian actor with a 'unique and sustained connection' to the occupied Palestinian territories, whose operations must be facilitated rather than obstructed — particularly given the dire humanitarian conditions in Gaza."   Nimer Sultany, a reader in public law at SOAS University of London, said the decision also highlighted that Israel's obligations were ongoing and unchanged by the current ceasefire.   "So in the context in which we have a Trump plan and many Western states are eager to so-called 'move on' after two years of mass slaughter, two years of the killing of thousands of Palestinian children, innocent men and women as well, this ICJ advisory opinion is a reminder of the kind of damage and the kind of havoc that Israel has inflicted on the international legal order and the fact it has consistently attacked the United Nations," he said.   Dr Sultany said the decision was especially relevant in relation to Israel's recent threats to restrict aid entering Gaza as a way to pressure Hamas to hand over more hostage bodies.   "The fact that Israel is weaponising food and medicine and humanitarian aid in order to inflict damage on a civilian population, the fact that Israel is using collective punishment against more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as a method of war, is a complete disregard of the laws of war, a complete disregard of the basic norms of international law and the interest code of justice" he said.   "Israel, as a member, as a member state that is subject to the basic norms of international humanitarian law and international human rights law and as an occupier with responsibility over millions of Palestinians, cannot behave in this way — that is to completely disregard the basic rights of civilian populations."   The ICJ has previously ordered Israel to "take immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip", and ensure it is taking all steps possible to prevent the commission of genocide in Gaza.   http://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/196/196-20251022-adv-01-00-en.pdf http://www.icj-cij.org/case/196   July 2025 WFP Statement | #Gaza   On the morning of 20 July, a 25 truck WFP convoy carrying vital food assistance crossed the Zikim border point destined for starving communities in northern Gaza.   Shortly after passing the final checkpoint beyond the Zikim crossing point into Gaza, the convoy encountered large crowds of civilians anxiously waiting to access desperately needed food supplies.   As the convoy approached, the surrounding crowd came under fire from Israeli tanks, snipers and other gunfire.   We are deeply concerned and saddened by this tragic incident resulting in the loss of countless lives. Many more suffered life-threatening injuries. These people were simply trying to access food to feed themselves and their families on the brink of starvation. This terrible incident underscores the increasingly dangerous conditions under which humanitarian operations are forced to be conducted in Gaza.   Today’s violent incident comes despite assurances from Israeli authorities that humanitarian operational conditions would improve; including that armed forces will not be present nor engage at any stage along humanitarian convoy routes.   There should never, ever, be armed groups near or on our aid convoys, as reiterated on many occasions to all parties to the conflict. Shootings near humanitarian missions, convoys and food distributions must stop immediately. Any violence involving civilians seeking humanitarian aid is completely unacceptable.   We stand firmly by our principles of operating with independence, impartiality and neutrality. It is one of the many reasons why communities trust us.   The World Food Programme continues to call for the protection of all civilians and aid workers delivering life-saving assistance. WFP teams accompanying convoys should not have to risk their own lives in the effort to save others.   Gaza’s hunger crisis has reached new levels of desperation. People are dying from lack of humanitarian assistance. Malnutrition is surging with 90,000 women and children in urgent need of treatment. Nearly one person in three is not eating for days. Food aid is the only way for most people to access any food – as the cost of a one-kilogram bag of flour has surged to over USD100 in local markets. Only a massive scale-up in food aid distributions can stabilize this spiraling situation.   An agreed ceasefire is long overdue. All hostages should be released, and humanitarians should be able to reach the civilian population in Gaza with critical food supplies in a consistent, predictable, orderly and safe manner -- wherever they are across the Gaza Strip.   We urgently call on the international community and all parties to advocate for, and facilitate, the delivery of life-saving food aid to starving populations inside Gaza – safely, securely, wherever families are, and without obstruction.   http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/countries-in-focus-archive/issue-134/en/ http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/gaza-un-child-rights-committee-condemns-using-starvation-children-weapon-war http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/israel-has-committed-genocide-gaza-strip-un-commission-finds http://www.unocha.org/news/un-relief-chief-demands-urgent-action-halt-spread-famine-and-suffering-gaza http://www.ochaopt.org/content/no-safe-place-left-gaza-un-and-ngos-demand-ceasefire-and-protection-forced-displacement http://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/un-human-rights-occupied-palestinian-territory-israeli-plan-take-full-control-gaza-city-will-lead-further-killings-and-displacement http://www.ohchr.org/en/media-centre/news-situation-occupied-palestinian-territory-israel-and-lebanon http://www.icrc.org/en/news-release/icrc-president-mass-evacuation-gaza-city-unfeasible-and-incomprehensible http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unthinkable-gaza-city-has-already-begun http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/07/as-mass-starvation-spreads-across-gaza-our-colleagues-and-those-we-serve-are-wasting-away http://www.unocha.org/news/un-relief-chief-warns-security-council-erosion-rules-war-gaza-demands-urgent-response http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-executive-director-catherine-russells-remarks-humanitarian-situation-children   June 2025   Starving people must not be forced to risk their lives to access food - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk. (OHCHR)   Deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in Gaza, are unconscionable. For a third day running, people were killed around an aid distribution site run by the “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” (GHF). This morning, we have received information that dozens more people were killed and injured.   There must be a prompt and impartial investigation into each of these attacks, and those responsible held to account. Attacks directed against civilians constitute a grave breach of international law, and a war crime.   Palestinians have been presented the grimmest of choices: die from starvation or risk being killed while trying to access the meagre food that is being made available through Israel’s militarized humanitarian assistance mechanism. This militarized system endangers lives and violates international standards on aid distribution, as the United Nations has repeatedly warned.   The wilful impediment of access to food and other life-sustaining relief supplies for civilians may constitute a war crime. The threat of starvation, together with 20 months of killing of civilians and destruction on a massive scale, repeated forced displacements, intolerable, dehumanizing rhetoric and threats by Israel’s leadership to empty the Strip of its population, also constitute elements of the most serious crimes under international law.   In 2024, the International Court of Justice found that there was a real and imminent risk of irreparable prejudice to the rights of Palestinians in Gaza under the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.   The Court issued binding orders on Israel to take all necessary and effective measures to ensure, without delay, in full cooperation with the United Nations, the unhindered provision at scale by all concerned of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance, including food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene and sanitation requirements, as well as medical supplies and medical care to Palestinians throughout Gaza.   There is no justification for failing to comply with these obligations.   17 June 2025   United Nations chief Antonio Guterres calls for accountability after the latest GHF site killings.   On Monday, more than 200 patients arrived at the Red Cross Field Hospital in Al Mawasi - the highest number received by the facility in a single mass casualty incident. Of that number, 28 patients were reportedly declared dead, WHO spokesperson Dr Peeperkorn said. Just one day earlier, on 15 June, the same hospital received at least 170 patients, who reportedly had been trying to access a food distribution site.   Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General said: “The Secretary-General condemns the loss of lives and injuries of civilians in Gaza, where once again they have been shot at while seeking food". "It is unacceptable”.. “As of yesterday 16 June, 338 people have been killed and more than 2,800 injured while trying to access food near distribution sites.”   Dr Thanos Gargavanis, WHO trauma surgeon and emergency officer, told UN News: “The recent food distribution initiatives by non-UN actors every time result in mass casualty incidents”.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-briefing-notes/2025/06/gaza-palestinians-seeking-food-continue-be-killed-israeli-military http://www.biicl.org/blog/115/privatised-food-delivery-in-gaza-and-violations-of-international-humanitarian-law http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1164846 http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/07/1165403   * 160+ NGOs call for immediate action to end the deadly Israeli distribution scheme (including the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) in Gaza, revert to the existing UN-led coordination mechanisms, and lift the Israeli government’s blockade on aid and commercial supplies. The 400 aid distribution points operating during the temporary ceasefire across Gaza have now been replaced by just four military-controlled distribution sites, forcing two million people into overcrowded, militarized zones where they face daily gunfire and mass casualties while trying to access food and are denied other life-saving supplies:   http://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/gaza-starvation-or-gunfire-not-humanitarian-response-0   * Mass casualties reported in Gaza as hostilities continue. (OCHA)   The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warns that the situation on the ground in the Gaza Strip continues to worsen by the day.   Hostilities across Gaza have reportedly caused mass casualties. In the last two days, partners reported scores of people killed and injured, apparently while gathering to receive supplies near militarized distribution centers in Rafah and Deir al Balah. Attacks against health facilities have also continued. As hostilities continue, people have once again been forced to flee. Since 18 March, OCHA and humanitarian partners estimate that more than 640,000 people – nearly a third of Gaza’s entire population – have been displaced again across the Strip.   The UN and its humanitarian partners continue to call for the full lifting of the restrictions on aid and other essentials to ensure the needs of civilians in Gaza are met.   * In an interview with the BBC at the International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters in Geneva, the organisation's president Mirjana Spoljaric said "humanity is failing" as it watched the horrors of the Gaza war.   Ms Spoljaric said "We cannot continue to watch what is happening. It's surpassing any acceptable, legal, moral, and humane standard. The level of destruction, the level of suffering.. More importantly, the fact that we are watching a people entirely stripped of its human dignity. It should really shock our collective conscience."   "There's no excuse for hostage-taking. There is no excuse to depriving children from their access to food, health, and security. There are rules in the conduct of hostilities that every party to every conflict has to respect."   The ICRC is considered the custodian of the Geneva conventions. The fourth, agreed after the Second World War, is designed to protect civilians in wars.   "There's no justification for the disrespect or hollowing out of the Geneva Conventions. Neither party is allowed to break the rules, no matter what, and this is important because the same rules apply to every human being under the Geneva Convention. A child in Gaza has exactly the same protections under the Geneva Conventions as a child in Israel."   Ms Spoljaric said the ICRC was deeply concerned about talk of victory at all costs, total war and dehumanisation.   "We are seeing things happening that will make the world an unhappier place far beyond the region, far beyond the Israelis and the Palestinians, because we are hollowing out the very rules that protect the fundamental rights of every human being."   She added that states must do more to end the war, end the suffering of Palestinians and release Israeli hostages."Every state is under the obligation to use their means, their peaceful means, to help reverse what is happening in Gaza today," she said.   http://www.unocha.org/news/un-relief-chief-no-one-should-have-risk-their-life-feed-their-children-gaza http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/06/opt-attacks-around-aid-distribution-site-gaza http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1164471 http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1163966 http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1163926 http://www.icrc.org/en/statement/israel-occupied-territories-red-cross-field-hospital-rafah-unprecedented-fatalities http://www.icrc.org/en/statement/israel-and-occupied-territories-red-cross-field-hospital-unprecedented-influx-war-wounded-gaza http://www.icrc.org/en/news-release/israel-and-occupied-territories-icrc-urges-protection-of-civilians-unhindered-humanitarian-assistance http://www.savethechildren.net/news/news-quote-let-us-do-our-jobs-and-deliver-aid-safely-gazas-starving-population http://www.savethechildren.net/news/news-quote-gaza-aid-must-not-be-turned-tool-control-rather-relief   May 2025   Gaza Strip: IPC Acute Food Insecurity and Acute Malnutrition Special Snapshot | April - September 2025   Nineteen months into the conflict, the Gaza Strip is still confronted with a critical risk of Famine. Over 60 days have passed since all humanitarian aid and commercial supplies were blocked from entering the territory. Goods indispensable for people’s survival are either depleted or expected to run out in the coming weeks. The entire population is facing high levels of acute food insecurity, with half a million people (one in five) facing starvation.   From 11 May to the end of September 2025, the whole territory is classified in Emergency (IPC Phase 4), with the entire population expected to face Crisis or worse acute food insecurity (IPC Phase 3 or above).   This includes 470,000 people (22 percent of the population) in Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5), over a million people (54 percent) in Emergency (IPC Phase 4) and the remaining half million (24 percent) in Crisis (IPC Phase 3).   This marks a significant deterioration compared to the previous IPC analysis (released in October 2024) and the already dire conditions detected between 1 April - 10 May 2025. During this time, 1.95 million people (93 percent) were classified in Crisis or worse (IPC Phase 3 or above), including 244,000 people (12 percent) in IPC Phase 5 (Catastrophe) and 925,000 (44 percent) in IPC Phase 4 (Emergency).   Between 1 April and 10 May, acute malnutrition (AMN) was at Alert and Serious levels (IPC AMN Phase 2 and 3). However, experience has shown that acute malnutrition can worsen rapidly, and latest data indicate a deteriorating trend that is expected to persist. Consequently, acute malnutrition in North Gaza, Gaza and Rafah governorates will likely reach Critical levels (IPC AMN Phase 4) between 11 May and end of September.   Between mid-January and mid-March 2025, the ceasefire allowed a temporary alleviation of acute food insecurity and malnutrition conditions in parts of the Gaza Strip. However, the ongoing blockade imposed in early March reversed the situation. Since 18 March, the escalating conflict has displaced over 430,000 people, further disrupted access to humanitarian assistance, markets, health, water and sanitation services, and caused additional damage to remaining essential infrastructure.   All 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme (WFP) closed at the beginning of April due to lack of supplies, and food stocks for most of the 177 hot meal kitchens are reportedly exhausted.   All preventive nutrition supplies have run out in UNICEF and WFP warehouses. Food prices are soaring daily, with wheat flour ranging from USD $235 per 25 kg in Deir al-Balah to USD $520 in Gaza and Khan Younis - a 3,000 percent increase since February 2025. Latest data show many households resorting to extreme coping strategies. A third reported collecting garbage to sell for food, while a quarter indicated that no valuable garbage remains. Observations reveal that social order is breaking down.   The plan announced on 5 May by Israeli authorities for delivering food and non-food items across the governorates is estimated to be highly insufficient to meet the population’s essential needs for food, water, shelter and medicine.   Moreover, the proposed distribution mechanisms are likely to create significant access barriers for large segments of the population. In light of the announced large-scale military operation across the Gaza Strip and the persistent inability of humanitarian agencies to deliver essential goods and services, there is a high risk that Famine (IPC Phase 5) will occur in the projection period (11 May – 30 September). The latest announcements suggest that this worst-case scenario is becoming more likely.   Immediate action is essential to prevent further deaths, starvation and acute malnutrition, and a descent into Famine. This entails ending hostilities, ensuring unrestricted humanitarian access, restoring essential services and commercial flows, and providing sufficient lifesaving assistance to all in need.   http://www.ipcinfo.org/ipcinfo-website/countries-in-focus-archive/issue-124/en/ http://www.wfp.org/news/risk-famine-across-all-gaza-new-report-says http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/06/1164076 http://tinyurl.com/2s3kkd63 http://www.unocha.org/news/un-relief-chief-calls-security-council-act-decisively-prevent-genocide-gaza http://www.who.int/news/item/12-05-2025-people-in-gaza-starving--sick-and-dying-as-aid-blockade-continues http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unimaginable-horrors-more-50000-children-reportedly-killed-or-injured-gaza-strip http://www.unwomen.org/en/news-stories/news/2025/05/un-women-estimates-over-28000-women-and-girls-killed-in-gaza-since-october-2023   http://www.unocha.org/news/briefing-note-un-coordinated-plan-resume-humanitarian-aid-deliveries-gaza http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/statement-unicef-executive-director-catherine-russell-situation-children-gaza-strip http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/05/gaza-un-child-rights-committee-condemns-mass-starvation-children-amid-aid http://www.actionagainsthunger.org/press-releases/half-of-gazas-children-now-malnourished-as-humanitarian-aid-remains-blocked/ http://www.mercycorps.org/blog/gaza-is-starving http://www.careinternational.org.uk/news-stories/blockade-in-gaza-we-hope-this-hell-were-living-in-will-end-soon/ http://plan-international.org/news/2025/06/02/israeli-aid-blockade-hits-three-month-mark/ http://plan-international.org/blog/2025/03/24/the-true-cost-of-war-gaza-ceasefire-fail/   Sep. 2025   “A war of atrocities:” Sudan civilians deliberately targeted, UN Fact-Finding Mission reports international crimes on large-scale. (OHCHR)   Rival forces in Sudan are deliberately targeting the devastated nation’s civilian population, committing atrocities including war crimes on a large scale, the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan said in its latest report today. Some acts may also amount to the crimes against humanity, including persecution and extermination.   The report to the UN Human Rights Council, “A War of Atrocities,” found that both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) were responsible not only for direct and large-scale attacks against civilians, but also for the extensive destruction of essential infrastructure for survival, including medical centres, markets, food and water systems, and displacement camps.   The report also found that the RSF, during the siege of El Fasher and surrounding areas, committed myriad crimes against humanity, including murder, torture, enslavement, rape, sexual slavery, sexual violence, forced displacement and persecution on ethnic, gender and political grounds.   The RSF and its allies used starvation as a method of warfare and deprived civilians of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, medicine and relief supplies - which may amount to the crime against humanity of extermination.   “Our findings leave no room for doubt: civilians are paying the highest price in this war,” said Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the Fact-Finding Mission. “Both sides have deliberately targeted civilians through attacks, summary executions, arbitrary detention, torture, and inhuman treatment in detention facilities, including denial of food, sanitation, and medical care. These are not accidental tragedies but deliberate strategies amounting to war crimes. The RSF has further committed crimes against humanity, including large-scale killings, sexual and gender-based violence, looting, and the destruction of livelihoods—at times rising to persecution and extermination.”   Civilians are being targeted based on their perceived affiliation with the other side. In El Fasher and surrounding areas, the RSF and its allies carried out large-scale killings of hundreds of civilians, intentionally directing attacks against non-Arab communities including the Zaghawa, Fur, Masalit, and Tunjur, and forcibly displacing populations. In Zamzam camp in April, between 300 and 1,500 civilians — mostly women and children — were massacred. In Gezira, the SAF and its allies targeted the Kanabi community after recapturing the town in January, killing dozens and forcing most residents to flee.   Both parties failed to take sufficient measures to minimize the impact of airstrikes and artillery on civilians and civilian infrastructure. As a result, towns, villages, displacement camps, markets, hospitals and homes have been systematically destroyed or rendered uninhabitable, leaving 12.1 million people displaced and more than half the nation facing acute food insecurity. Only one in four health facilities remains functional in the worst-affected regions.   Humanitarian assistance has been obstructed, convoys attacked, and aid workers targeted. Between April 2023 and April 2025, more than 84 Sudanese humanitarian workers were killed, while others were arbitrarily detained.   The report found that both sides have arbitrarily arrested, detained and tortured civilians because of the victims’ ethnicity, political opinion, profession or alleged collaboration with the opposing party. Detainees were frequently held without access to adequate food, sanitation or medical care.   RSF detention centres were described by survivors as “slaughterhouses” where in some cases, detainees were beaten to death and summarily executed. Some were subjected to forced labour or held for ransom, with families forced to pay for their release.   Sexual and gender-based violence, including rape, gang rape, forced marriage and sexual slavery was committed by RSF fighters. Women and girls from non-Arab communities, some as young as 12, were particularly targeted. SAF personnel and allied forces were also implicated in acts of sexualized torture in detention.   “Behind every documented story is a shattered family, a displaced community, a survivor of unimaginable violence,” said Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, an expert Member of the Fact-Finding Mission. “We have interviewed numerous civilians who have endured extreme trauma and suffered or witnessed killings, starvation, sexual violence, torture, and the destruction of essential services. The cycle of impunity has emboldened perpetrators for decades. Victims — especially women and children, who bear the greatest burden — deserve justice and reparations.”   The report outlined steps necessary for accountability, emphasizing that justice and protection cannot wait until a peace agreement is reached. Sudan’s domestic institutions remain unwilling and unable genuinely to conduct credible investigations. Instead, they perpetuate selective justice, shield perpetrators through immunities and amnesties, and continue to deny survivors any real prospect of redress.   “Our report not only exposes atrocities, it also lays out a roadmap for justice,” said expert Member Mona Rishmawi. “The international community must act now to enforce the arms embargo, support justice by backing the International Criminal Court, establish an independent judicial mechanism for Sudan, use universal jurisdiction to hold perpetrators accountable, and ensure that those orchestrating atrocities face consequences, including targeted sanctions.”   “Every day of inaction leaves the Sudanese people under attack – their lives, communities, and survival at risk,” Rishmawi said. “Accountability is not optional – it is a legal and moral imperative to protect civilians and prevent further atrocities.”   The Fact-Finding Mission called on the international community to impose targeted sanctions against individuals and entities responsible for international crimes. It also pressed for swift and coordinated action to cease hostilities, protect civilians, lift sieges, and halt ethnic targeting and sexual and gender-based violence. It urged all States, particularly those with influence on the parties, to abide by arms embargoes and refrain from providing them with material support and increase humanitarian assistance.   “Sudan is living through one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises and gravest hunger emergencies, with some of its population facing war crimes, persecution and extermination,” Othman said. “The international community has the tools to act. Failure to do so would not only betray the Sudanese people — it would betray the very foundations of international law.”   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/09/war-atrocities-sudan-civilians-deliberately-targeted-un-fact-finding-mission http://www.ohchr.org/en/hr-bodies/hrc/ffm-sudan/index http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/09/1165784 http://ishr.ch/latest-updates/hrc-has-a-moral-and-political-responsibility-to-respond-proportionately-to-the-crisis-in-sudan/   3 June 2025   WFP/UNICEF humanitarian aid convoy carrying life-saving supplies attacked in Sudan’s North Darfur.   "The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF condemn an attack on a joint humanitarian convoy near Al Koma, North Darfur, last night. Five members of the convoy were killed, and several more people were injured. Multiple trucks were burned, and critical humanitarian supplies were damaged.   "The convoy, made up of 15 trucks, was attempting to reach children and families in famine-affected Al Fasher with life-saving food and nutrition supplies. Following months of escalating violence, hundreds of thousands of people in Al Fasher - many of them children - are at high risk of malnutrition and starvation if supplies do not urgently reach them.   "As is standard with our humanitarian convoys, the route was shared in advance, and parties on the ground were notified and aware of the location of the trucks. Under international humanitarian law, aid convoys must be protected, and parties have the obligation to allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief for civilians in need.   "Both agencies demand an immediate end to attacks on humanitarian personnel, their facilities and vehicles - a violation under international humanitarian law.   "We call for an urgent investigation and for the perpetrators to be held to account.   "We extend our condolences to the families of those killed and our heartfelt sympathy and support to all those injured. It is devastating that the supplies have not reached the vulnerable children and families they were intended to. The convoy had travelled over 1,800km from Port Sudan, and we were negotiating access to complete the journey to El Fasher when it was attacked.   "This latest incident follows a series of attacks on humanitarian operations over the past two years, including last week’s bombardment of WFP’s premises in Al Fasher which damaged a workshop, office building and clinic.   "Attacks on humanitarian staff, aid, operations, as well as civilians and civilian infrastructure in Sudan have continued for far too long with impunity. WFP and UNICEF colleagues remain on the ground despite the insecurity, but call for safe, secure operating conditions and for international humanitarian law to be respected by all parties. The lives of millions in Sudan, including in locations like El Fasher in Darfur, depend on it."   UN Relief Chief issues call to action for protection and accountability for the people of Sudan:   "Again and again, the international community has said that we will protect the people of Sudan. The people of Sudan should ask us if, when and how we will start to deliver on that promise. For their country has become a grim example of twin themes of this moment: indifference and impunity.   We sound again the alarm. This is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. 30 million people need lifesaving aid – half the population. A war that should be ended rages without mercy. From Kordofan to Darfur, it has left civilians trapped, starving, without the basics they need for their survival. Indiscriminate shelling, drone attacks and other air strikes kill, injure and displace people in staggering numbers.   The health system has been smashed to pieces, with cholera, measles and other diseases spreading. And now the lean season is arriving. Our appeals are pitifully supported. Where is the funding?   Meanwhile, hospitals and displacement camps have been attacked, critical infrastructure destroyed, and aid trucks hit, preventing them from getting food and essential supplies to those in such desperate need.   Last week’s deadly attack on a UN humanitarian convoy in North Darfur again demonstrated the vanishing protection for civilians – including aid workers. The human cost of this war – including horrific sexual violence – has been repeatedly reported and condemned, but talk has not translated into real protection for civilians or safe, unimpeded and sustained access for humanitarians.   Where is the accountability? We call on all with influence to step up. Protect civilians. Guarantee safe access for humanitarians. Fund their work. Insist on agreements to humanitarian pauses and other arrangements that can allow us to safely reach the areas and people worst hit. Work harder to secure a lasting, inclusive and just peace.   Despite cuts and danger, the humanitarian movement will not stop working to reach those in need. Let this time not be defined by indifference and impunity, but by a revival in human solidarity for those in greatest need, and determination to hold to account those responsible for it."   http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/wfpunicef-humanitarian-aid-convoy-carrying-life-saving-supplies-attacked-sudans http://www.unocha.org/news/un-relief-chief-issues-call-action-protection-and-accountability-people-sudan http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/06/sudan-war-intensifying-devastating-consequences-civilians-un-fact-finding http://www.unocha.org/publications/report/sudan/attacks-civilians-and-civilian-infrastructure-sudan-must-stop-statement-united-nations-resident-and-humanitarian-coordinator-ai-sudan-kristine-hambrouck http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/04/sudan-faces-worsening-humanitarian-catastrophe-famine-and-conflict-escalate http://www.unocha.org/publications/report/sudan/port-sudan-drone-attacks-call-protect-civilian-infrastructure-statement-united-nations-resident-and-humanitarian-coordinator-sudan-clementine-nkweta-salami   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/05/sudan-un-expert-calls-end-attacks-critical-civilian-infrastructure-amidst http://www.unicef.org/press-releases/civilians-trapped-children-risk-amid-escalating-violence-darfur http://www.nrc.no/news/2025/april/sudans-darkest-hour http://www.nrc.no/resources/reports/sudan-crisis-two-years-on http://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-two-years-war-starvation-global-failure-world-must-act-now http://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/news-comment-two-years-sudan-catastrophe-world-cannot-afford-ignore http://dataviz.unhcr.org/product-gallery/2025/04/sudan-crisis-deepens-but-attention-wanes-after-two-years-of-war/ http://www.msf.org/conflict-sudan Visit the related web page
	Lebanon: 5 years without justice for port explosion by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch   Lebanese authorities have yet to deliver truth and justice for the victims and their families five years after the devastating Beirut port explosion on 4 August 2020, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said today. It is imperative to conduct a comprehensive and unobstructed investigation that establishes the full chain of responsibility.   The blast, which killed at least 236 people, injured over 7,000, and devastated vast areas of the capital, was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.   Despite repeated domestic and international calls for accountability over the past five years, Lebanese authorities have failed to complete an effective, independent, and impartial investigation into the explosion.   The resumption of the domestic investigation in 2025 after a two-year suspension has yet to yield conclusive results. The investigation has been marred by persistent obstruction and interference by political leaders and state officials determined to evade justice. For the victims’ families, this prolonged denial of accountability is an unbearable burden.   “Justice delayed is justice denied,” said Reina Wehbi, Amnesty International’s Lebanon Campaigner. “The families of those killed and injured in the Beirut explosion have waited an intolerable five years. They must not be forced to endure another year of impunity. The time for justice, accountability, and truth is now.”   Rather than facilitating the investigation, several politicians and senior officials summoned by lead investigative judge, Tarek Bitar, including generals, judges, members of parliament, and former ministers, have consistently sought to derail it. They have refused to attend questioning sessions, invoking various forms of immunity, and opened a barrage of legal challenges against Judge Bitar that have repeatedly suspended the inquiry.   In January 2023, when Judge Bitar attempted to revive the stalled investigation after a two-year suspension, Lebanon’s then–public prosecutor, Ghassan Oueidat—who had been charged by Bitar—responded by filing a lawsuit against him, effectively suspending the investigation once again. Oueidat also ordered the release of the suspects who had been held in pre-trial detention since the explosion and instructed security forces and the Public Prosecution Office to cease all cooperation with the judge.   In February 2025, following yet another two-year hiatus, Judge Bitar resumed the investigation by summoning additional employees and officials implicated in the explosion. The move came amid renewed political pledges by newly elected President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam to uphold the rule of law and ensure justice for the port explosion victims.   The move was enabled in March, when the interim top prosecutor, Jamal Hajjar, overturned the measures imposed by his predecessor that had effectively frozen the investigation. Some of those summoned, such as former Prime Minister Hassan Diab, Major General Abbas Ibrahim, and Major General Tony Saliba, complied and appeared for questioning for the first time in years.   However, other officials, including two members of parliament, Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zaiter, and Oueidat, the former prosecutor, have continued to obstruct the investigation by refusing to submit to questioning.   The Lebanese authorities should ensure a comprehensive and unobstructed investigation, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch said. It is imperative for this inquiry to thoroughly establish the facts and circumstances surrounding the explosion, encompassing the full chain of responsibility—whether domestic or international—and determining whether any criminal acts or human rights violations occurred due to the state’s failure to protect lives.   The authorities also need to take all necessary measures to guarantee that the investigation can be completed without undue interference or obstruction from political leaders, state officials, or suspects in the case.   This includes guaranteeing the independence of the judiciary and adopting essential amendments to Lebanon’s civil and criminal procedures codes to address provisions that have been exploited to obstruct criminal and civil investigations.   Despite the resumption of the investigation, the road to justice remains littered with political and legal challenges, Amnesty International and Human Right Watch said. The Lebanese authorities should swiftly remove the barriers that have repeatedly blocked the investigation and ensure that it proceeds without political interference.   A 2021 investigation by Human Rights Watch concluded that the explosion was a direct result of the Lebanese authorities’ failure to uphold their human rights obligations, particularly the right to life, and pointed to the possible involvement of senior officials.   Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and other rights groups have consistently documented a range of procedural and systemic flaws within the domestic investigation. These flaws include pervasive political interference, granting immunity to high-level politicians, and failure to respect due process and fair trial standards.   Other countries have also repeatedly condemned the authorities’ blatant political interference in the domestic investigation, notably in a joint statement at the United Nations Human Rights Council in March 2023.   “Justice for the Beirut port explosion is not only about accountability for a single event,” said Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon Researcher for Human Rights Watch. “It is a test of Lebanon’s promised commitment to the rule of law and human rights.”   http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/08/lebanon-5-years-without-justice-for-port-explosion-victims-comprehensive-and-unobstructed-investigation-needed/   Sep. 2025   Sri Lanka is on the Front Line of the Battle for Accountability   For many people around the world, the memory of atrocities that shocked us is often overwritten a few years later by new horrors. But for survivors and the families of victims, the suffering never ends. Worse still, military and political leaders elsewhere — who might be considering atrocities of their own — are paying close attention. Unaddressed war crimes provide a dismal model for future atrocities.   Sri Lanka’s total defeat of the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, which cost tens of thousands of civilian lives, in what the United Nations found may constitute crimes against humanity, demonstrated utter disregard for the laws of war by both sides. Yet it is held up today by some Israeli military strategists as a campaign to be emulated. That is only possible because there were no consequences for the atrocities committed.   Successive Sri Lankan governments have shown that by pledging to uphold international law and then reneging on that promise, you can get away with anything. That’s why the U.N. Human Rights Council needs to keep demanding accountability and renew the mandate to collect evidence of international crimes committed in Sri Lanka at its current session this month in Geneva.   Sri Lanka’s civil war lasted 26 years, with both sides committing widespread violations, including attacks on civilians, extra-judicial killings, and enforced disappearances. In the final months of the war, the remnants of the LTTE and hundreds of thousands of Tamil civilians were corralled by the Sri Lankan army in an ever-shrinking space.   While the LTTE used the civilians as human shields, the Sri Lankan army blocked humanitarian supplies and unilaterally declared one “safe zone” after another, before bombarding those same areas with airpower and artillery. Health facilities were repeatedly targeted. What happened in Sri Lanka 16 years ago, and went unpunished, were precursors to some of the tactics and abuses being used in Gaza today.   By 2009, Sri Lanka already had a long history of atrocities going unpunished. In the 1980s, a leftist uprising by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People’s Liberation Front, or JVP) led to the enforced disappearance and killing by the army of thousands of young people suspected of links to the insurgents.   Some of the army officers involved in that campaign, such as Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who went on to become defense secretary and later president, would be implicated in later atrocities.   About 20 mass graves have been discovered so far around Sri Lanka, relating to both the JVP uprising and the civil war with the LTTE.   Typically, they are uncovered by accident by construction workers, digging a foundation or laying a water pipe. The most recent mass grave to be reopened is at Chemmani, near Jaffna, in northern Sri Lanka, where the remains of over 200 people who are believed to have been killed in army custody in the 1990s were discovered this year, including a child with a school bag.   Victims’ families and human rights defenders at Chemmani, and throughout Sri Lanka, hope that the remains will be identified, the truth will be revealed, and those responsible held to account. But bitter experience gives them few grounds to be hopeful. Due to a lack of technical capacity or political will, no mass grave in Sri Lanka has yet been successfully investigated.   The families of the “disappeared” have been waiting for decades to learn what happened to their loved ones, much less see justice done. Those who campaign for answers face surveillance and intimidation from the security forces. A woman whose son was taken away by the army in 2008 and never came home told Human Rights Watch this summer that she had recently been questioned for three hours by counterterrorism police. “Sometimes they approach our children to get information about us. That is a type of threat,” she said.   The blanket impunity for international crimes, and flagrant harassment of people who demand justice, have led victims to lose faith in domestic mechanisms. U.N. action to uphold international law in Sri Lanka is essential. Since 2015, the U.N. Human Rights Council has passed a series of resolutions to support accountability. At first, Sri Lanka supported those resolutions, though the government did not fulfill its commitments. But in 2020, Sri Lanka withdrew from the process, preferring to uphold “war heroes” rather than hold alleged criminals accountable.   The Human Rights Council responded by creating the Sri Lanka Accountability Project, to collect evidence of international crimes committed in Sri Lanka that could be used to prosecute alleged perpetrators abroad or, if conditions improve in Sri Lanka, to support future prosecutions in Sri Lankan courts. The council also mandated the U.N. to monitor ongoing abuses.   That work remains vital – not just to protect human rights in Sri Lanka, but to challenge impunity everywhere. Without accountability, brutal military and political leaders across the world will conclude that to achieve their ends, mass slaughter “works.”   http://www.hrw.org/news/2025/09/16/sri-lanka-is-on-the-front-line-of-the-battle-for-accountability   Aug. 2025   Peru’s amnesty law breaches international human rights obligations, UN experts warn. (OHCHR)   UN human rights experts are appalled by the promulgation of an amnesty law for security forces for crimes committed in 1980-2000 on 13 August 2025 in Peru.   “This legislation breaches international standards by granting amnesty to members of the Armed Forces, the Peruvian National Police and Self-Defense Committees that are denounced, under investigation or prosecution for crimes committed between 1980 and 2000 and whose conviction verdicts are not final, as well as to individuals over 70 years of age who have already been convicted of such crimes.”   “International standards bar the application of amnesties or pardons to crimes against humanity and other gross human rights violations, including enforced disappearances. Such measures indeed create an unacceptable form of impunity and undermine decades of progress toward justice, truth, and reparations for victims,” the experts warned.   Law N° 32419 entered into force on 14 August 2025, violating international law, including the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which the country ratified on 26 September 2012, the Updated Set of principles for the protection and promotion of human rights through action to combat impunity, and Peru’s obligations under the American Convention on Human Rights, ratified on 27 July 1977.   This came a year after the approval of Law No. 32107 of 9 August 2024, which introduced a statute of limitations for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed prior to 1 July 2002.   The experts reiterated that the non-applicability of statutory limitations to crimes against humanity is a peremptory norm of international law from which no derogation is permitted.   “The State must urgently reverse these setbacks in Peru’s pursuit of justice and reconciliation, and fully comply with its international obligation to investigate, prosecute and punish gross human rights violations and crimes under international law committed during the internal armed conflict, including enforced disappearances,” the experts said.   Amnesties, statutes of limitations and analogous legal concepts shall not restrict the right of access to justice of the victims of these crimes.   The experts also called on Peru to ensure that the widespread or systematic practice of enforced disappearance is fully recognised — in law and in practice — as a crime against humanity under international law. “Peru must guarantee that its legislation and policies reflect the continuing nature of enforced disappearances, and that the search for victims and investigations continue until the truth about their fate and whereabouts is fully established,” they added.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/08/perus-amnesty-law-breaches-international-human-rights-obligations-un-experts
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