Almost a year into the war in Ukraine – and amid new missile strikes targeting the eastern city of Kharkiv on Wednesday - top rights experts issued a strong appeal for the deliberate destruction of the country’s cultural treasures by Russian forces to stop. 

ROME, Feb 21 (IPS) - Harassing Palestinians, vandalizing their cars and houses, occupying their lands: Gilad Sade, a 36-year-old Israeli, recalls his day-to-day life when he belonged to a Jewish supremacist organization.

NAIROBI, Feb 21 (IPS) - Juliana Nnoko-Mewanu is a senior researcher on women and land and Oryem Nyeko is the Tanzania researcher at Human Rights WatchTanzania’s policies on conservation and its ongoing impacts on Maasai people in Ngorongoro district highlight how communities historically marginalized by oppression still wrestle with colonial policies.

PORTLAND, USA, Feb 21 (IPS) - Fear of population ageing is all over the news media and in government offices of country capitals worldwide. Planet Earth is becoming “planet ageing”.

BEIJING, The People's Republic of China, Feb 21 (IPS) - Digitalization is a key driver of competitiveness and development. As the world takes the path to unprecedented digital advancement, Asia continues to be a powerhouse of digital transformations in a wide range of areas from microchip manufacturing to electric vehicles, from digital currency to e-commerce.

BANGKOK, Feb 21 (IPS) - Nearly 18 million people – about one-third of Myanmar’s population – need humanitarian aid this year because of civil war and the post-coup economic crisis, according to the latest United Nations estimates.

The Security Council on Tuesday heatedly debated Russia’s request for a UN-led inquiry into the September explosions along the Nord Stream natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

Independent UN experts on Tuesday welcomed Spain’s adoption of new comprehensive anti-discrimination and feminist legislation. 

Three Senegalese peacekeepers serving in Mali were killed, and five others seriously injured, when their vehicle hit an explosive device, the UN Mission in the country, MINUSMA, reported on Tuesday.

As the international community prepared to mark one year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, UN rights investigators on Tuesday relayed disturbing testimonies about the high number of civilians killed to date.