A record 29 states, including China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have retaliated in the past year against citizens who cooperate with the United Nations, the U. N. human rights office said on Wednesday. Current top breaking Philippine headlines regarding the nation, world, metro manila, regions and exclusive special investigative reports.
GENEVA, Switzerland — A record 29 states, including China, Iran and Saudi Arabia, have retaliated in the past year against citizens who cooperate with the United Nations, the U. N. human rights office said on Wednesday. People communicating with the rights body had been abducted, detained, held incommunicado, or had disappeared, U. N. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Andrew Gilmour said. Nine of the states named in the report — Burundi, Egypt, Rwanda, Cuba, Venezuela, China, India, Saudi Arabia And the United Arab Emirates — are current members of the 47-country U. N. Human Rights Council. Gilmour told the Council that it was «nothing short of abhorrent» that his office had to keep coming back with examples of states victimizing people for helping the United Nations — Wednesday’s was its eighth annual report on the reprisals. «There is something grotesque and entirely contrary to the Charter and spirit of the United Nations, and particularly this Council, that people get punished, through intimidation and reprisals, for cooperating with the U.
