With more than 6 million children dying before their fifth birthday last year, health decision and policy makers are being offered a more holistic way to look at child mortality. The UN Human Rights Office and the World Health Organization (WHO) have designed the technical guidance for applying a human rights-based approach to improving child mortality rates. The guidance note was launched during the 27th Human Rights Council session.

The continuing application of capital punishment is a “primitive” practice which has no place in the 21st century, United Nations officials declared today, as they pressed global leaders to set course towards abolishing the death penalty and advancing a more progressive judicial agenda in their respective States.