(UN News)* —The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, says major companies and fast-moving technologies are creating new challenges for tackling rights abuses – and that governments and businesses need to step up.
UN Photo/Mark Garten | Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in an interview with UN News.
Opening the 14th UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva on Monday [24 November 2025] he said that corporate power has become increasingly influential in terms of social change.
He warned that without proper checks in place, new tools like generative artificial intelligence – or AI – could easily be misused.
“When powerful tech giants introduce new technologies, such as generative artificial intelligence,human rights can be the first casualty,” he said.
–In Belem, Brazil, as the United Nations climate summit (COP30) convened, I marched alongside thousands of activists and Indigenous peoples calling on governments to urgently address climate change and protect human rights.
The Group of Twenty (G20) comprises 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, United Kingdom and United States) and two regional bodies: the European Union and the African Union (as of 2023).
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Credit: UN Photo/Gustavo Stephan
The G20 members represent around 85% of the global GDP, over 75% of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population. South Africa assumed the G20 presidency on December 1 2024 and will step down on November 30 2025. The next G20 summit will be hosted by the US in 2026.
YAOUNDE, Cameroon / BARCELONA, Spain, Nov 24 2025 (IPS)** –– When South Africa assumed the Presidency of the G20, debt sustainability was placed front and centre, with the promise to launch a Cost of Capital Commission.
21 November 2025 — In response to the latest ‘Mutirão’ text, Nafkote Dabi, Oxfam International Climate Policy Lead, said:
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Climate activists Cynthia Houniuhi, Hilda Nakabuye, Marinel Ubaldo, and Pavel Martiarena at the Climate Justice Camp. (Photo: Tim Zijlstra/Oxfam).
“As COP30 races toward its close, world leaders are gambling with the planet — and with the lives of the poorest. Rich countries are treating adaptation finance as a bargaining chip.
Yet adaptation finance is a lifeline for all people, from farmers facing failed harvests to families already uprooted by climate disasters.
Rome –Disasters have inflicted an estimated $3.26 trillion in agricultural losses worldwide over the past 33 years – an average of $99 billion annually, roughly 4 percent of global agricultural GDP – according toa new reportby the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
20 November 2025 —Extreme heat poses multiple risks for agrifood systems – damaging crops, stressing livestock and depleting fisheries – and threatens the livelihoods of an estimated 1.23 billion people.
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There is an urgent need for science-informed solutions to strengthen resilience and sustainability, according to a new report from the Food and Agriculture Organization and WMO on “Extreme Heat and Agriculture.”
Digital violence goes even further than online harassment or extortion. Millions of girls are affected each year by child sexual exploitation and abuse through digital means. PHOTO:Annanahabed/Adobe Stock
Violence against women and girls remains one of the most prevalent and pervasive human rights violations in the world.
Globally, almost one in three women have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both, at least once in their life.
What was once hailed as a vehicle for empowerment has, for millions of women and girls, become a source of fear. Fuelled by artificial intelligence, anonymity, and weak accountability, online abuse is rapidly escalating.
Yet, 1.8 billion women and girls still lack legal protection from online harassment and other forms of technology-facilitated abuse.
The alarm is being sounded this week by the UN agency for women’s rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment (UN Women) as the 16 Days of Activism campaign begins, calling for urgent action against soaring digital violence.
New report warns more children are at risk of falling into poverty as global funding cuts, conflict and climate threaten access to services crucial for health and wellbeing.
UNICEF/UNI630167/Frank Dejongh
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NEW YORK – More than 1 in 5 children in low- and middle-income countries – or 417 million – are severely deprived in at least two vital areas critical for their health, development, and wellbeing, according to UNICEF’s flagship report issued on World Children’s Dayobserved on 20 November 2025.
(UN News)* — Seventeen civilians, including women in labour and patients receiving care, were slaughtered inside a Catholic Church-run health centre in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) last week.
The UN described it as one of the most appalling attacks in a new wave of violence by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an armed extremist rebel group.
Four wards housing patients were set ablaze during the assault in Byambwe, a remote community about 60 kilometres west of Lubero in the restive North Kivu province, which has been plagued by fighting between a plethora of armed groups and national security forces for years.
Climate activists Cynthia Houniuhi, Hilda Nakabuye, Marinel Ubaldo, and Pavel Martiarena at the Climate Justice Camp. (Photo: Tim Zijlstra/Oxfam).
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 