More than half of the deaths were never documented due to the difficulty of collecting reliable data on death tolls in conflict zones, made still harder by the brutality of Syria's war.
Most of Khartoum, Darfur and North Kordofan are too dangerous to operate in, the U.N. refugee agency said.
The commemoration is not meant to be a look solely into the past; the idea is to preserve and teach an ugly chapter of history that might help ward off humanity’s worst impulses.
The U.N. human rights office cited summary executions, use of soldiers as human shields, torture and other inhumane treatment carried out by both Russian and Ukrainian forces.
The war crimes include killings, torture and illegal confinement, rape and other sexual violence, kidnapped children, and attacks on civilians and energy-related infrastructure, according to a U.N. commission of inquiry.
The U.N. human rights chief says that a quarter of all of humanity lives today in places that are affected by conflict, and unfortunately "it is civilians who suffer the most."
It is a fight that spans the continent and has entangled international organizations, border security forces and a host of others in a murky web of politics and international law.
Alarmed at a sharp increase in the use of the racist “N” word on Twitter, the experts said all the major social media corporations must immediately show greater accountability for online hatred spewed at people of African descent.
Though the release of political prisoners in Myanmar is a relief to those unfairly detained and their families, the U.N. human rights office notes the military junta is still holding thousands of others in detention for opposing military rule.
The latest figures show the vast majority of the world's 8 billion inhabitants prefer to stay within their nation of birth. But almost 1-in-20 are on the move away from their home.
NGOs and humanitarian organizations, many of them staffed and led by women, provide critical life-saving services for many people in Afghanistan, including health care programs for pre- and post-natal and infant care staffed by women.
The U.N. human rights body's special session was called because of Tehran's violence response to the widespread protests over 22-year-old Mahsa Amini's death while in the custody of the morality police for violating an Islamic dress code.
China notched a diplomatic win with the U.N. Human Rights Council's rejection of a debate on evidence of abuses in China’s remote Xinjiang region.
A panel of U.N. human rights investigators concluded that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine during Russia's almost 7-month-old invasion.
U.N. career diplomat Volker Türk of Austria won approval from the U.N. General Assembly to replace former U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet.
A U.N. report finds China's persecution of Muslim Uyghurs may constitute crimes against humanity, drawing calls for accountability and Beijing's scorn.
