Human rights through the eyes of Andy Vermaut

Working abroad can be a way for Indonesians to earn much more than they could at home, and provide for their families. However, for some the journey can turn into a nightmare, with long hours, wages withheld, and abuse. The UN is working closely with the government to help bring trafficked workers home. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1148126?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon (UNIFIL) announced that it is investigating an explosion that injured four unarmed peacekeepers on a foot patrol along the Blue Line that divides Israel from Lebanon and the disputed Golan Heights. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1148131?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

When the landfill in Osaki, in the southwest of Japan, reached capacity, an incinerator was the logical next step. Instead, the town decided to get serious about recycling. Ahead of International Zero Waste day, marked on 30 March, Kasumi Fujita, a town councillor committed to Osaki’s low waste policies, tells UN News what inspired her. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1148011?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

A 12-year-girl who was allegedly raped repeatedly by her stepfather has been described by Madagascar’s Chief Inspector of Police as “courageous” after she came forward to tell her story during an information session on gender-based violence supported by the United Nations. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1148061?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

A United States resolution to extend the mandate of an expert panel which monitors sanctions against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) was vetoed by Russia in the Security Council on Thursday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1148121?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Russia must immediately release American journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been detained without evidence for a year, two UN human rights experts said on Thursday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1148116?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday issued new provisional measures for Israel as the humanitarian situation in bombarded and besieged Gaza continues to deteriorate. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1148096?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Immediate and bold action is required to tackle the “cataclysmic” situation in Haiti, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said in a report issued on Thursday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1148086?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

“What you do makes me cry at night,” 13-year-old Severn Cullis-Suzuki told the 1992 Earth Summit in Brazil in a message that resonates today as the world grapples with climate change. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1148066?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

A former UN staff member who worked for a decade in Sudan’s Darfur region for the African Union-United Nations mission, UNAMID, has told UN News how she had to “avoid stepping on the bodies in the streets” as she fled for her life to neighbouring Chad. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1148051?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Insecurity in the volatile eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has worsened since the end of recent elections, UN Special Representative Bintou Keita told the Security Council on Wednesday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1148046?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

While a third of humanity faces food insecurity, an equivalent of one billion meals go to waste every day, a new report by the UN environment agency (UNEP) revealed on Wednesday. One fifth of food is thrown away. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1148036?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) issued a new report on Tuesday, revealing a surge in credible allegations of torture and executions of captured Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) at the hands of Russian forces. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1148026?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

When a group linked to the ISIL terror organization claimed responsibility for the deadly attack on a Moscow concert hall on 22 March, one of the pretexts reportedly given for the killings was Russia’s engagement in the Syrian civil war, which has turned into a proxy war involving several foreign powers.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147996?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process on Tuesday issued a fervent plea for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and release of all hostages, amid “cataclysmic” suffering in the Gaza Strip and continuing violence in the occupied West Bank. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147981?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

One in three migrant deaths happens while people flee conflict, the UN migration agency, IOM, said on Tuesday. More than two in three migrants whose deaths have been documented remain unidentified.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147971?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Intense hostilities in Gaza continued on Tuesday between Hamas fighters and Israeli forces with a “double-digit number of children killed overnight” and ongoing aid delivery obstacles that are responsible for near-famine conditions, UN humanitarians said. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147966?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Top UN officials, including the Secretary-General and the President of the General Assembly on Monday paid tribute to the millions of men, women and children who suffered as a result of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, one of most devastating chapters in human history. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147956?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in war-ravaged Gaza during Ramadan and calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147951?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Conflict in Yemen entered its 10th year on Monday, as UN humanitarians issued a warning that over half the country’s populations are in desperate need of aid.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147941?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN Security Council is poised to convene an emergency meeting at 10am (New York time) on Monday to take up a fresh draft resolution in a bid to stop the war and humanitarian suffering in Gaza on the heels of a United States-proposed text that China and Russia vetoed on Friday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147931?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

With “starvation bearing down” on Gaza, UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday repeated his call for a sustainable end to the conflict and the release of all remaining hostages – amid “unprecedented and ongoing devastation” in the occupied enclave. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147921?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Israeli authorities informed the United Nations on Sunday that it will no longer approve the passage of any UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, food convoys into northern Gaza. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147916?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The largest global environment movement is happening on Saturday, when the UN invites people around the world to shut the lights to remember the planetary crisis during Earth Hour as young partners find new ways to drive climate action. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147911?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

In the face of escalating conflicts and humanitarian crises, UN Secretary-General António Guterres is set to embark on his annual Ramadan solidarity trip, commencing this weekend in Cairo, Egypt. The trip, which coincides with the holy month of Ramadan, takes place amid turbulent times, particularly with the ongoing conflict in Gaza. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147901?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN chief condemned in the strongest possible terms Friday’s deadly terrorist attack at a concert hall outside Moscow. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147896?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Independent UN human rights experts on Friday expressed alarm over increased reports of sexual slavery and trafficking in Sudan, especially of women and girls. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147876?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Amid reports of ongoing bombardment across Gaza on Friday, UN humanitarians highlighted “shocking levels of disease and hunger” after visiting an overwhelmed hospital in the north of the enclave. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147861?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z4JVcOyXFQ&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

After thirteen years of conflict in Syria, a continuing political stalemate threatens to prolong the suffering of millions and hinder efforts to bring about peace, the UN Special Envoy for the country said on Thursday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147846?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The situation in the gang-ravaged capital of Haiti has gone from worrying to “extremely alarming” as conditions in Port-au-Prince continue to worsen amid growing hunger and serious shortages in hospitals to treat gunshot victims, said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator there on Thursday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147836?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Reparatory justice must tackle the grave human rights violations deeply entrenched in the legacy of colonialism and enslavement, the General Assembly heard on Thursday on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, marked annually on 21 March. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147821?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

UN Secretary-General António Guterres doubled down on his call for a ceasefire in Gaza and peace in Ukraine on Thursday, taking aim at the “chaotic” global outlook and any country or armed group that thinks “it can do whatever it wants because there is no accountability”. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147811?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Some 70 million hectares of forest are affected by fires each year, causing huge environmental and economic damage. On the International Day of Forests, marked on 21 March, we look at how an innovative UN-led initiative in Indonesia is dramatically reducing forest fires, saving livelihoods and cutting harmful emissions. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147766?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has received the interim findings of an independent panel conducting an assessment of UNRWA, the UN agency that assists Palestinians, his office said on Wednesday in a note to correspondents.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147796?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Women in one of the poorest parts of rural Madagascar are growing their financial independence from men by cultivating village land and selling their produce. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147706?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

With the number of political prisoners growing and a shutdown of civic space, people in Belarus are being deprived of their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and more, a new UN human rights report presented on Wednesday has revealed. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147761?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Less than half of the UN aid convoys planned for Gaza’s hunger-ravaged north have made it so far this month, despite repeated appeals from the international community to ramp up relief to more than one million people on the brink of starvation, UN humanitarians said on Wednesday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147756?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Forced labour is happening all over the world and it’s earning criminal gangs an astonishing $236 billion a year – $64 billion more than a decade ago, UN researchers said on Tuesday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147751?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Clusters of tents are cobbled together with any available fabric, plastic and wood, as Ramadan decorations, lamps and lanterns illuminate a crowded camp of displaced people in central Gaza, spreading a ray of hope amid the rubble of war. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147726?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Humanitarians continue to deliver aid in Haiti, where the situation in the capital, Port-au-Prince, remains tense and volatile in the face of escalating gang violence and political instability.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147741?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Records were once again broken for greenhouse gas levels, surface temperatures, ocean heat and acidification, sea level rise, ice cover and glacier retreat, a new global report issued by the UN weather agency (WMO) on Tuesday shows. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147716?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

As the war in Sudan enters its second year next month, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) on Monday warned of a staggering toll of the crisis on children, with an estimated 24 million teetering on the brink of a “generational catastrophe”. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147701?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Iranian security forces shot hundreds of people who took part in widespread protests sparked by the death of Jina Mahsa Amini while she was in the custody of the country’s so-called morality police, top independent human rights investigators said on Monday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147681?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN’s emergency relief chief on Monday outlined the need for a fundamental shift in how humanitarian assistance is delivered, advocating for greater understanding of the needs of crisis-affected populations and a more proactive approach. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147676?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Amid growing global concerns over alarming hunger spikes in conflict-affected communities and talk of intensifying levels of food insecurity possibly leading to famine, we looked into how – and when – a famine is classified. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147661?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Almost 80 years after the incineration of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, nuclear weapons still represent a clear and present danger to global peace and security, UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Monday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147666?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Amid reports that the Israeli military stormed Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Monday in search of Hamas fighters, UN humanitarians warned that new food insecurity data indicates that famine could happen “anytime”. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147656?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN chief on Saturday condemned an attack which saw eight peacekeepers from the UN Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, wounded during clashes between the powerful M23 rebel movement and Government troops.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147651?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Efforts are being made in the south of Madagascar to end a traditional but illegal practice in which girls are promised as a wife to older men, sometimes even before they are born. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/03/1147571?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger