UN News Today 24 July 2025 |

Gazans ‘are neither dead nor alive’ but ‘walking corpses’: UNRWA

One in five children in Gaza City suffers from malnutrition and cases are rising daily, according to latest findings from the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA.

That information was shared by UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a tweet on Thursday.

He quoted a colleague who said that “people in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses.”

Mr. Lazzarini warned that “when child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food and care disappears, famine silently begins to unfold.”

He said most children UNRWA teams are seeing “are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they don’t get the treatment they urgently need.”

He added that “more than 100 people, the vast majority of them children, have reportedly died of hunger.”

The deepening crisis is affecting everyone, he said, including UNRWA frontline health workers who are surviving on one small meal a day and increasingly fainting from hunger while at work.

Mr. Lazzarini called for humanitarians to be allowed to bring in unrestricted and uninterrupted assistance into the Gaza Strip, adding that UNRWA has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks of food and supplies waiting in Jordan and Egypt.

UN warns of ‘serious abuses’ against Afghan returnees

People returning to Afghanistan face “serious violations” of their human rights at the hands of the Taliban de facto authorities, the UN said in a report issued on Thursday amid mass deportations from Iran and Pakistan. 

Abuses include threats, torture, mistreatment, and arbitrary arrest and detention, according to the report by the UN mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

These violations were committed against Afghans “based on their profile” and targeted women, media workers, and civil society members, as well as persons affiliated with the former government that fell in 2021 and its security forces — despite the Taliban’s claims that such individuals benefit from an amnesty.

Since 2023, and the start of large-scale deportation campaigns launched by Iran and Pakistan, millions of Afghans have returned to their country.  More than 1.8 million have returned this year alone, mainly from Iran.

The report urges States not to return anyone to Afghanistan who faces a real risk of human rights violations. They also should expand resettlement opportunities for at-risk Afghans and ensure their protection.

Rights chief hails ICJ ruling affirming States’ obligations regarding climate change

UN human rights chief Volker Türk has welcomed a landmark ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on States obligations regarding climate change,

The ICJ — the UN’s top court — issued an advisory opinion on Wednesday which makes clear that human rights law and obligations apply in the context of climate change, including the right to a clean and healthy environment.

The decision said that States have a duty “to use all means at their disposal to prevent activities carried out within their jurisdiction or control from causing significant harm to the climate system and other parts of the environment”. 

Mr. Türk called it a sweeping victory for all those fighting to protect a safe climate and planet for all humanity.

He said, “States now urgently need to take meaningful action through legislation, policy change, resource mobilisation and international cooperation, to stop the climate crisis from worsening and open paths towards due reparations for those affected.”

The ICJ, informally known as the “World Court”, settles legal disputes between UN Member States and gives advisory opinions on legal questions that have been referred to it by UN organs and agencies.

Although its advisory opinions are not binding, they carry significant legal and moral weight.

Dianne Penn, UN News.

Music composed and produced by Joachim Harris. All rights reserved.