UN News Today 05 February 2026 |

Funding crisis leaves abusers free rein across world, warns rights chief Türk

The funding crisis impacting the UN has taken a heavy toll on the prevention of serious rights violations worldwide, the High Commissioner for Human Rights warned on Thursday.

In an appeal for $400 million to support his Office for the next 11 months, UN rights chief Volker Türk stressed that his teams are already in “survival mode”, with missions cut by more than half last year, compared with 2024.

There is now far less money to ensure the collection of evidence to protect people’s rights and prevent abuses, Mr. Türk insisted:

“We reduced our presence in 17 countries, including some with fragile transitional justice processes. In Colombia, for example, our Office had to reduce our engagement in the peace process and our assistance to Indigenous Peoples and people of African descent. With three out of our eight offices in the country now closed, many human rights defenders, especially women, are left without protection.”

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights worked in 87 countries last year and carried out more than 5,000 monitoring missions, including in Ukraine.

UN human rights workers also directly supported 67,000 survivors of torture and contemporary forms of slavery. 

This work also included the documentation of tens of thousands of human rights violations, including hundreds of abuses against journalists and human rights defenders with discrimination exposed in more than 100 countries, Mr. Türk noted. 

Occupied West Bank attacks on Palestinians record huge spike since 2021

To the Occupied West Bank, where attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians have seen a massive spike since 2021.

That’s according to the latest update from UN aid coordination agency OCHA on the West Bank, where only 18 settler incidents were documented between 2006 and 2020, compared with 318 incidents between 2021 and 2025.

On Tuesday, OCHA reported that Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man near Ras at Tira village in Qalqiliya, after he crossed the Israeli-built wall separating the West Bank from Israel. 

Also on Tuesday, Israeli forces reportedly shot and killed a Palestinian man during a raid in Jericho city. This brings the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces between 1 January and 3 February to eight, OCHA said.

According to the UN office, nearly 700 Palestinians in nine communities have been displaced across the occupied West Bank following settler attacks so far this year.

Yemen: Aid flights set to resume to Houthi-controlled capital and beyond

And finally, to Yemen, where the UN has confirmed that its aid flights to the country’s opposition-held capital will resume, after being blocked for more than a month.

UN Humanitarian Air Service flights are a vital provider of relief amid overwhelming needs across Houthi-held areas, including the capital city, Sana’a, and other locations across Yemen, which has been at war since 2014.

Julien Harneis, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, said in a statement that the agreement reached earlier this week will allow NGOs to enter and exit Sana’a, which is a prerequisite to providing assistance for millions of people in need in Houthi-controlled areas.

Years of conflict between separatists and the internationally recognized government have left more than  19.5 million people needing humanitarian assistance and more than 4.8 ‎million internally displaced. 

Funding is only available to meet around 25 per cent of needs, meaning that millions ‎are not getting lifesaving assistance, including health care, shelter, water, sanitation ‎and hygiene.

Daniel Johnson, UN News