UN secretary general António Guterres and UN human rights high commissioner Volker Türk at the opening of the Human Rights Council 55th session in Geneva, 26 February 2024. (UN Photo/Elma Okic)

💸 Exclusive: UN human rights branch under stress amid liquidity crunch. As the UN faces its worst liquidity crisis in recent history, experts, staff and observers worry about the ramifications on human rights work. Correspondence seen by Geneva Solutions reveals concerns at the highest levels of the UN human rights branch in Geneva as they are forced to scale back their operations.

🇷🇺 Memorial Switzerland: Russian elections part of Putin’s rewriting of history. The historians and linguists behind the Swiss chapter of the Russian human rights NGO Memorial, which was set up last year, describe the daunting task of dismantling the lies of Putin’s propaganda machine. Last month’s presidential elections were expected to be yet another example of this illusion.

😷 Jayati Ghosh: Pandemic accord negotiations will go nowhere because of powerful multinationals. The renowned Indian economist was a guest at the International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights in Geneva. She believes that multinational corporations have too much influence on negotiations led by the World Health Organization for an accord on pandemic preparedness. She also paints a very critical picture of her country.

🎯 UN rights expert on Israel-Gaza war: ‘Everyone has been deemed targetable’. Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, has said there are “reasonable grounds” to believe Israel has committed acts of genocide against Palestinians. In a damning report released on Monday, the law expert argues that the scale and nature of Israel’s assault on Gaza “reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group”.

Andrew Clapham, author of War and professor of international law at the Geneva Graduate Institute. (Magali Dougados for Le Temps)

⚖️ Andrew Clapham: International justice too slow on Ukraine war crimes. The author of the book War and professor of international law at the Geneva Graduate Institute deplores the slow pace at which crimes committed in Ukraine are being prosecuted. He warns of the inconsistency in the west’s approach.

💥Radhouane Nouicer: ‘Sudan crisis has taken on epic dimension’. Eleven months into Sudan’s bloody civil war, the warring parties are no closer to finding a peaceful resolution, with millions of Sudanese paying the price. The UN human rights expert on Sudan tells us both sides need to show more political will to silence their guns.

🚮David Boyd: ‘Businesses are treating the environment like a free dumping ground’. In his last report to the Human Rights Council before stepping down, the UN’s top human rights and environment expert takes big business to task for triggering the climate and environment crisis.

The Gdeim Izik encampment, November 2010. (The Norwegian Support Committee for Western Sahara)

⛓Scrutiny over Gaza occupation raises hopes of forgotten Western Sahara activists. On the sidelines of the Human Rights Council, lawyers and human rights defenders denounce the long-term imprisonment of 19 Sahrawis, known as the Gdeim Izik group, and call for Morocco to release them. Scrutiny over Gaza’s occupation by Israel is also raising hopes of renewed attention on Western Sahara’s forgotten conflict.

🏛️ ‘A mix of hope, expectation and realism’: Guatemala’s anti-graft figures see uphill battle for new leader. As pro-democracy leader Bernardo Arévalo begins a four-year term as Guatemala’s president, exiled anti-corruption figures Jordán Rodas and Juan Francisco Sandoval warn that corruption is still deeply entrenched in the country’s institutions.

🤐 Dmitry Muratov: ‘80 per cent of Russians are for peace, but have no way of saying it’. While in Geneva, the Russian journalist and Nobel Prize winner describes Vladimir Putin's authoritarian rule as a new kind of ‘digital dictatorship’. He talks about the fear it instils and the control it exercises. He also looks back on the extraordinary funeral of opposition figure Alexeï Navalny.

Bitis is a genus of venomous vipers found in African countries including South Sudan. (Wikimedia/Julius Rückert)Bitis is a genus of venomous vipers found in African countries including South Sudan. (Wikimedia/Julius Rückert)

🐍 In South Sudan, doctors turn to AI to treat deadly snakebites. In poor rural regions of low- and middle-income countries, snake bites pose a deadlier threat than most other neglected tropical diseases. In South Sudan, Médecins sans Frontières is piloting an AI-powered tool it hopes will stop them from slithering under the radar.

❛❛ Human Rights Council must renew UN probe body on Iran. The United Nations fact-finding mission on Iran, whose report on the regime’s widespread human rights violations during its brutal crackdown on the 2022 protests will be discussed by the council on Friday afternoon, must imperatively be extended, writes the NGO Iran Justice.