UN rights chief meets US group protesting voter suppression Hundreds of German choir boys abused in 20th century

U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has met a delegation of U.S. faith-based human rights activists to discuss voter suppression efforts targeting African-Americans and low-income voters in the United States.

Zeid’s office said the delegation led by the Rev. William Barber, national president of Repairers of the Breach, presented the rights chief with a letter outlining their concerns, which they said violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The rights office said Zeid welcomed the delegation Tuesday and noted his “grave concern” at “the longstanding discrimination against African-Americans and the marginalization of poor communities and communities of color in the U.S.” Zeid underscored the “ripple effect” of voter suppression on other rights,

A report says that at least 547 members of a prestigious Catholic boys’ choir in Germany were physically or sexually abused between 1945 and the early 1990s.

Allegations involving the Domspatzen choir in Regensburg were among a spate of revelations of abuse by Roman Catholic clergy in Germany that emerged in 2010.

News agency dpa reported that Ulrich Weber, a lawyer tasked with investigating the abuse, said Tuesday there was violence against children in the choir’s pre-school and high school.

He said many victims described their time at its boarding school as “the worst time of their lives, marked by fear, violence and helplessness.”