Left-right: Neri Colmenares, Abdul Aziz Muhamat, Juwairiya Mohideen, Nemonte Nenquimo and Intisar Al-Amyal. (True Heroes Films)

👏 A new tool to champion human rights defenders. An online digest of human rights awards and laureates celebrates over 2,800 human rights heroes to ensure their work never goes unnoticed.

🇺🇳 NGOs worry Covid-related restrictions at Human Rights Council will leave a mark. With the rights body meeting virtually this month, many NGOs fear they are being sidelined. Worse still, they’re worried that the temporary measures they say are limiting their participation might be here to stay.

🇸🇾 Arbitrary detentions in Syria conflict may be war crimes. A UN commission on Syria says tens of thousands of civilians were “arbitrarily detained” in enforced disappearances during the country's 10-year conflict.

🗣🚫 Human Rights Council highlights crackdown on opposition. The 46th regular session opened last Monday with a warning from UN secretary general António Guterres, who said some countries were using the pandemic to "crush dissent". We look back at some key takeaways from the first week.

Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny before hearing his sentencing at a court in Moscow, February 2021. (Keystone/Moscow City Court via AP)

UN blames Russia for attempted murder of Alexei Navalny. Two top UN human rights experts said on Monday that Russia was to blame for attempting to kill Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, as part of a pattern of attacks on opposition figures intended to send a “sinister warning”. The pair called for an international investigation into his poisoning last year “as a matter of urgency”.

Donors cut funding needed to stave off famine in Yemen. The outcome of yesterday’s pledging conference for the humanitarian crisis in Yemen was “disappointing”, according to UN secretary general António Guterres, with donors pledging significantly less than last year and one billion dollars less than 2019. “Millions of Yemeni children, women and men desperately need aid to live,” said Guterres following the event. “Cutting aid is a death sentence.”

📌3 March | Stop enforced disappearances. This webinar aims to share experiences and outcomes of actions taken from different human rights groups to promote the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

📌4 March | Digital Dilemmas: Balancing visibility and vulnerability. Humanitarian organisations play a role in providing social protection services. This event calls on experts from the different sectors to discuss the dilemmas that humanitarians confront when deploying social protection services.