A program to pay asylum applicants in Germany to return to their home countries, often before a decision is made on their status, has begun. The government wants to increase the number of people who choose to leave. 

On 1 February, Congo's police fired tear gas as supporters of Democratic Republic of Congo opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi gathered to mourn in Kinshasa shortly after his death was announced, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

A life–saving service for vulnerable children caught up in crises is now available to government, aid agencies and social service workers through an open source app developed by UNICEF and its partners.

On 30 January, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for the immediate and unconditional release of Nazir Al-Majid, a Saudi intellectual and journalist held since 18 January, when a Riyadh court sentenced him to seven years in prison, a fine and a seven-year foreign travel ban on completion of the jail term.

The Council of Europe Group of experts against human trafficking (GRETA) has published today a report on the implementation of the Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings by Italy. The report assesses the specific situation of forced returns of victims of trafficking from Italy and the identification of victims of trafficking among asylum seekers and migrants.

On 27 January, International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust is celebrated.

On 25 January,the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR) today published its annual conclusions for 2016 (Social Charter and Revised Charter) showing 166 violations of the European Social Charter across 34 Council of Europe member states.

On 25 January, two United Nations human rights experts called on the Government of Cambodia for the immediate release of five human rights defenders detained in May 2016 on charges, which they see as politically motivated.

Huge cuts to homelessness services will trigger a surge in the number of people forced to sleep on the streets and pile more pressure on hard-pressed NHS and social care services, charities have said.

Nearly half a million Syrian refugee children are currently enrolled in schools across Turkey. But despite a more than 50 per cent increase in enrolment since last June, over 40 per cent of children of school-going age — or 380,000 child refugees — are still missing out on an education, said UNICEF on 19 January.