The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNCHR) said that during the first six months of 2013, more then 46,000 refugees and migrants arrived in Yemen, a country that has received close to half a million refugees since 2006.

“UNHCR staff and our partners, such as the Yemeni Red Crescent and the Danish Refugee Council, work daily to record new arrivals and offer them support,” UNHCR spokesperson Melissa Fleming told reporters in Geneva. “That help takes many forms, including food and water, first aid and transportation to transit and reception centres, hot meals, welcome packages including blankets and clothing, accommodation and counselling.”

Fleming said UNHCR had witnessed a significant change in the refugee and migrant population arriving in Yemen over the past two years, with more arrivals from Ethiopia. Previously, Somali refugees made up between one-third and one-quarter of total arrivals. Other arrivals come from Djibouti and Sudan, she said.

“Refugees and migrants are vulnerable to exploitation, violence and sexual abuse at all stages of their journeys,” Fleming said. “Boats crossing the Arabian Sea or Red Sea to Yemen are often overcrowded. Smugglers may force passengers into the water to avoid detection. Smugglers and traffickers often wait on the coast to receive the new arrivals.”

The Government of Yemen automatically recognizes Somali arrivals as refugees, while UNHCR determines the refugee status of Ethiopians and other nationals. Fleming said few Ethiopians seek asylum as many want to travel beyond Yemen or do not know how the asylum process works.

“As a result, most Ethiopians are left extremely vulnerable,” she said.

Fleming said there have been positive developments, as the number of dead or missing refugees and migrants has dropped significantly – to five people so far this year from 43 in all of 2012. Yemeni authorities have also had some success in locating smugglers’ and traffickers’ bases and cracking down on their operations.

“We are also engaged with the Yemeni Government and national and international partners. Together we are working to enhance services offered to refugees, asylum-seekers and migrants as well as find sustainable solutions,” she added.

The Israeli detention of an estimated 5,000 Palestinians, the “systematically abusive” detention of Palestinian children, the impact of the ongoing Israeli blockade of Gaza and the continued demolition of Palestinian homes were among the concerns cited by the UN Special Committee to investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the occupied territories, as it concluded its latest fact-finding visit to Amman and Cairo.Witnesses reported that some 200 children are in Israeli detention at any given time, and that children are often taken away in the middle of the night, blindfolded and their hands tied.

“Israel’s continued detention of an estimated 5,000 Palestinians should be of deep concern to the world,” said Ambassador Palitha Kohona of Sri Lanka, who currently heads the Committee. He noted in particular 20 prisoners who are on hunger strikes to protest abuses such as arbitrary detention, poor prison conditions, denial of family visits, solitary confinement, lack of access to education and negligent medical treatment.

“The most alarming testimony,” said Mr. Kohona, “concerned the systematically abusive detention and interrogation by Israeli authorities of Palestinian children.” Witnesses reported that some 200 children are in Israeli detention at any given time, and that children are often taken away in the middle of the night, blindfolded and their hands tied.

“Witnesses stated that Palestinian children are denied requests to be accompanied by a parent, denied access to a lawyer, and put at serious risk of torture and ill-treatment at the hands of Israeli security officials,” Mr. Kohona said in a news release.

Turning to Gaza, he said the lives of Palestinians in the territory have been “profoundly disrupted” by the six-year-old Israeli blockade. In particular, the committee was informed about the impact of Israel reducing the area in which Palestinian fishermen in Gaza can fish during the prime fishing season.

“Gaza’s 4,000 fishermen used to catch four tons of fish each year, now they bring in only 1.5 tons,” the committee said, adding that today, 80 per cent of Palestinian fishermen live in poverty.

“Gaza’s farmers find themselves in similar circumstances,” the committee observed. “They aren’t maximizing the cultivation of their traditional crops of strawberries, carnations, herbs and sweet peppers due to Israel’s near-total restriction on exports and enforcement of a buffer zone inside of Gaza.”

Mr. Kohona stressed that the international community must pressure the Israeli Government to let Palestinians farm, fish and export. Otherwise, Israel will entrench Gaza’s dependence on the international community.

The blockade also had the effect of “bifurcating Palestinian society,” since many Palestinians in Gaza have not seen family members in the West Bank for years, owing to Israeli restrictions on movement between Gaza and the rest of Palestine, he noted.

The committee also heard “disturbing” testimony about the treatment of Palestinians who seek a permit to leave Gaza, including efforts by Israeli officials to pressure them into becoming informants and forcing women to undergo humiliating strip searches.

It was also briefed on continuing settlement construction in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, the widespread phenomenon of Israeli settler violence and Israel’s discriminatory planning and zoning regime that effectively prohibits Palestinians from building or even renovating their homes.

In the first five months of 2013, 42 Palestinian structures were demolished in East Jerusalem. One witness reminded the committee that not all demolitions are reported as some families are forced to demolish their own homes to avoid huge fees from the Israeli Government.

“Businesses have a responsibility to not be complicit in Israel’s policies and practices that openly violate Palestinian rights,” observed the committee, which listened to reports of businesses, including multinational corporations, which are profiting from the Israeli settlement enterprise.

“It is inconceivable that any business could not be aware of the illegal nature of Israel’s settlement activities in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,” said Mr. Kohona. “There is a need for scrupulous due diligence and a clear awareness of the potential legal and reputational consequences for businesses associated with the Israeli settlement enterprise.”

The three-member committee, established by the General Assembly in 1968, will present a full report on its mission and other activities to the Assembly in November 2013.

“This is a long-awaited follow-up to a preliminary mission that took place last December,” Rupert Colville, spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), told reporters in Geneva.

As agreed with the Government, the four-member team that will travel to Bahrain from 2 to 6 December will also discuss the measures undertaken by the authorities to implement the recommendations of the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry, and those agreed at the recent Universal Periodic Review of Bahrain by the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The Commission of Inquiry was established by the King of Bahrain in June 2011 to investigate incidents that occurred during unrest in the country last year.

The human rights team is scheduled to hold discussions with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Interior, Human Rights, Health, Labour, and Education, as well as with the National Human Rights Institution and civil society organizations.

Colville added that High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay regrets the decision taken by Bahraini authorities on 7 November to revoke the nationality of 31 citizens for ‘having undermined state security,’ which may leave around 16 of them stateless.

“She urges the Government to reconsider this decision, which stands in clear violation of article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states that, ‘everyone has the right to a nationality’ and ‘no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality.’”

States are expected to observe minimum procedural standards to ensure that decisions concerning the deprivation of nationality do not contain any element of arbitrariness, added Colville.

Pillay is also “deeply concerned” about the restrictions on public demonstrations and other public gatherings declared by the Bahraini authorities on 30 October. “Bahrain should fully comply with its international human rights commitments, including respect for freedom of expression and peaceful assembly and association,” said Colville.

“She is also concerned by the sentencing of 23 medical professionals on 21 November, and reiterates her call on the authorities to release all individuals who have been detained or sentenced simply for exercising their right to demonstrate peacefully.”

“Women are the primary victims of the current crisis and have been disproportionately affected by the situation in the north,” Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonovic said in a news release. “Their human rights to employment, education and access to basic social services have been seriously curtailed.”

Fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels broke out in northern Mali in January. The instability and insecurity resulting from the renewed clashes, as well as the proliferation of armed groups in the region, drought and political instability in the wake of a military coup d’état in March, have led over 250,000 Malians to flee to neighbouring countries, with 174,000 Malians estimated to be internally displaced.

Šimonovic said Islamic groups are now in control following power shifts since the March coup. One displaced woman he interviewed in the northern town of Mopti said she could no longer return to her hometown of Gao, where she had been a merchant, because women under the strict application of Islamic Sharia law cannot work.

But “most disturbing,” according to the news release, were reports that Islamist groups were compiling lists of women who have had children out of wedlock, or who were unmarried and pregnant. “This could indicate that these women are at imminent risk of being subjected to cruel and inhuman[e] punishment,” Šimonovic said.

He said that, at the beginning of the conflict, there were reports of summary executions of members of the military, rapes, looting, forced displacement and forced child recruitment with the advance of the Tuareg rebel group Azawad National Liberation Movement, known by the French acronym MNLA.

“These were appalling violations of human rights,” said Šimonovic. “But they were largely ad hoc in nature.”

Since Islamic groups such as Ansar Dine, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MOJWA), and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) had taken control, the region was witnessing human rights abuses of a “different character,” he noted.

“Civil and political rights are being severely restricted as a result of the imposition of a strict interpretation of Sharia law, and systemic cruel and inhuman[e] punishments are being implemented, including executions, mutilations and stonings,” Šimonovic said.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says children have been deprived of their rights to education in the north because many teachers had fled, leading to the closure of schools. More ominously, extreme poverty, lack of employment and education is “making it easy for young people to fall prey to armed extreme Islamist groups, who continue to lure youth and children to join their cause.”

In a “particularly grave” case, one witness told Šimonovic of three children who were reportedly maimed while being trained on how to use improvised explosive devices.

In the Government-controlled south, Šimonovic pointed to reports of continuing torture and inhumane prison conditions. He noted that at least 30 participants of an April counter-coup remained in detention, and many had allegedly not had charges brought against them. Also, the whereabouts of 20 soldiers involved in the counter-coup had yet to be confirmed.

“It is essential that the authorities investigate these cases of disappearances in accordance with international human rights standards,” said Šimonovic, who received assurances from Mali’s Minister of Justice that thorough investigations would be promptly completed.

“Current violations are to a great degree symptoms of the chronic disrespect for human rights that already existed in Mali in the past,” Šimonovic said. “There is a need to address these root causes, including widespread corruption, mismanagement of public funds, inequality between the elite and general population, and nepotism, amongst others.”

Šimonovic emphasized the need for investigations into the recent human rights violations in both the north and the south, and said it was essential the perpetrators be held to account as a precondition for reconciliation and social cohesion.

He noted that any UN support to Malian security forces “must” conform to the UN’s Human Rights Due Diligence Policy, which prohibits the UN from supporting security forces involved in grave human rights violations.

To advance women’s human rights and empower them, it was essential that measures be taken to promote their participation in public life. Šimonovic said he was encouraged by the Prime Minister’s recognition that women have an important role to play in building peace and reconciliation as well as the economic prosperity of the country.

“One concrete way would be to introduce a 30 per cent quota for women in Parliament ahead of the next legislative elections,” Mr. Šimonovic said, adding that OHCHR was ready to support the Malian authorities in this regard, including through appointing a Human Rights Adviser to the UN Country Team in the capital, Bamako.

“Our staff and partners in Uganda, Rwanda and eastern DRC have been receiving regular and extensive reports of widespread human rights violations and abuses,” a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Andrej Mahecic, told reporters in Geneva.

“These include indiscriminate and summary killings of civilians, rape and other sexual abuse, torture, arbitrary arrests, assaults, looting, extortion of food and money, destruction of property, forced labour, forced military recruitment, including children, and ethnically-motivated violence,” he added.

DRC troops have been fighting the so-called M23, a group of former national army soldiers who mutinied in April, and have since been moving in north-eastern parts of the country, including in the provinces of North Kivu and Province Orientale. The DRC troops have received support from peacekeepers serving with the UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO).

UN officials and the Security Council have condemned the M23’s attacks, with the Council demanding that all forms of support to it and other armed groups in the country cease immediately.

The violence is believed to have displaced more than 470,000 people in eastern DRC. This includes some 220,000 people in North Kivu, 200,000 in South Kivu province, and more than 51,000 who have fled to neighbouring Uganda and Rwanda.

“UNHCR urges parties to the conflict to avoid targeting the civilian population and populated areas,” said Mahecic. “We call on all parties to the conflict to take all steps to protect the civilian population and to prevent indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks.”

As the fighting continues, large areas of North Kivu have been left without an adequate security presence, according to UNHCR. In the province’s Masisi and Walikale territories, several armed groups have taken advantage of the power vacuum to attack villages as well as settlements for internally displaced persons (IDPs). The armed groups have destroyed and looted houses, killed people belonging to ethnic groups seen as hostile, and subjected entire communities to extortion.

UNHCR says that forced recruitment is also widespread. Earlier this month, for example, an armed group in the town of Rutshuru, in North Kivu, forced 145 people to transport their ammunition. Some IDPs were beaten and injured for refusing to join another armed group.

Then refugee agency and its partners are providing shelter, protection, medical and psycho-social counselling for victims of violence in the camps and settlements of Uganda and Rwanda, but the deteriorating security situation in eastern DRC is severely affecting the agency’s capacity to deliver assistance outside the established IDP camps north and west of Goma, the capital of North Kivu.

Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), noted in a statement that recent weeks have witnessed cases of “extreme abuse and appalling violence against women.”

They include the torture and rape of a young woman, Lal Bibi, by Afghan Local Police and the public execution of a young woman, Najiba.

“These cases have once again focused attention on the continuing and urgent need to protect women’s and girls’ rights as the world redefines its role in Afghanistan, and as the Government of Afghanistan moves forward in [its] transition,” she stated.

Ms. Bachelet said such brutality is “intolerable” and called on the Government to respond urgently to these crimes, bring the perpetrators to justice, put an end to a culture of impunity and create a culture of zero tolerance of violence and discrimination against women and girls.

It is vital, stressed the Executive Director, that the important gains made for and with women over the past decade are advanced and sustained and that women are fully engaged in charting the future of Afghanistan.

“If Afghan women and girls continue to be ignored within the major decision-making processes affecting their country, the vision of a more secure, prosperous and stable Afghanistan cannot be realized,” she stated.

“To ensure progress for Afghanistan, we must act in solidarity to prioritize women’s rights, equality and accountability, and in ending impunity for violence against women and girls,” she added. “UN Women remains committed to working with the Government and people of Afghanistan to advance women’s empowerment and gender equality.”