Dec 23 2025 (IPS)** – CIVICUS discusses migrants’ rights in Libya with Sarra Zidi, political scientist and researcher for HuMENA, an international civil society organisation (CSO) that advances democracy, human rights and social justice across the Middle East and North Africa.
Sarra Zidi
Libya has fragmented into rival power centres, with large areas controlled by armed groups.
As state institutions have collapsed, there’s no functioning system to protect the rights and safety of migrants and refugees.
Instead, state-linked bodies such as the Directorate for Combating Illegal Immigration (DCIM) and the Libyan Coast Guard (LCG) often work with militias, smugglers and traffickers, with near-total impunity.
In this lawless environment, Sub-Saharan migrants face systematic abuses that the International Criminal Court (ICC) and United Nations bodies warnmay amount to crimes against humanity.
Despite this, the European Union (EU) continues to classify Libya as a ‘safe country of return’ and work with it to externalise its migration control.
(UN News)* — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned the “heinous deadly attack” on Sunday against Jewish families gathered in Sydney, Australia, to celebrate Hanukkah.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe | UN Secretary-General António Guterres speaking at a press conference at the UN Headquarters, in New York. (file photo)
In a social media post, Mr. Guterres said he was “horrified” by the incident.
“My heart is with the Jewish community worldwide on this first day of Hannukah, a festival celebrating the miracle of peace and light vanquishing darkness,” he wrote.
Online violence is spilling offline: Four in ten of the women surveyed also reported experiencing offline attacks connected to digital abuse.
.
Geneva –Online violence against women human rights defenders, activists and journalists has reached a tipping point, often fueling offline attacks, according to a new report released on , produced by UN Women’s ACT to End Violence against Women programme.
By Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights*
10 December 2025 (OHCHR)* — Human rights are underfunded, undermined and under attack. And yet. Powerful. Undeterred. Mobilizing.
UN Photo/Mark Garten | Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in an interview with UN News.
This year no doubt has been a difficult one. And one full of dangerous contradictions. Funding for human rights has been slashed, while anti-rights movements are increasingly well-funded.
Profits for the arms industry are soaring, while funding for humanitarian aid and grassroots civil society plummets.
Those defending rights and justice are attacked, sanctioned and hauled before courts, even as those ordering the commission of atrocity crimes continue to enjoy impunity.
(UN News)* —The vast majority of World Health Organization (WHO) member States say 40 to 90 per cent of their populations now use traditional medicine.
That’s according to Shyama Kuruvilla, director of WHO’s Global Traditional Medicine Centre, established in 2022 to tap into the potential of these systems for healthcare and well-being.
“With half the world’s population lacking access to essential health services, traditional medicine is often the closest or only care available for many people,” Ms. Kuruvilla told a virtual media briefing on , ahead of this month’s WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine.
Statement by UNICEF as countries move to introduce social media bans for children.
UNICEF/UNI448309/Mahari
NEW YORK, 10 December 2025 (UNICEF)* –“Across the globe, governments are debating how young is “too young” to use social media, with some introducing age-related restrictions across platforms.
“These restrictions reflect genuine concern: children are facing bullying, exploitation, and exposure to harmful content online with negative impacts on their mental health and well-being. The status quo is failing children and overwhelming families.
(UN News)* — As another winter storm hits the Gaza Strip, low temperatures and rains are putting the lives of newborns and other vulnerable groups at risk, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said on Wednesday [].
Following two years of war, most of Gaza’s roughly two million residents are living in makeshift shelters.
Humanitarians are working to deliver assistance to communities in flood-prone areas, including by scaling up distribution of winter clothes for children from 5,000 kits a day to 8,000.
Slavery is a horror from the history books – and a relentless contemporary crisis.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres (second from right) approaches the stakeout area to read a statement to journalists concerning allegations of slavery in Libya in 2017. UN Photo /Mark Garten
On the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery (2 December 2025), we remember past victims, especially the more than 15 million men, women and children across Africa who were seized, shackled and sold into bondage an ocean away – or perished en route.
We recall the painful scars their enslavement left on our societies, including structural inequalities and systemic injustices that have persisted for generations.
Geneva, 24 November 2025 – The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) has launched Anyone a Victim, a global campaign that calls for stronger action to prevent human trafficking and expand support for survivors.
The “Anyone a Victim” campaign brings survivor stories to the forefront, encouraging global support for efforts that help people regain safety and rebuild their lives. Photo: Peter Bateman
(UN News)* — Aid deliveries into Gaza continue to face difficulties as fighting continues across the territory, with the UN warning that most hospitals are only partially functioning and more than 16,500 patients still require urgent medical evacuation.
Briefing reporters in New York on Wednesday [], UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarricsaidhostilities in parts of the Gaza Strip are still resulting in casualties and repeated disruptions to humanitarian operations.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 