Human rights through the eyes of Andy Vermaut

The UN’s top political affairs official reiterated the urgent need for de-escalation in the Middle East, appealing in the Security Council on Wednesday for “swift and effective diplomatic action”, as ambassadors met in an emergency meeting on the latest flare-up in hostilities. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152716?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Thousands of people have returned to parts of Khan Younis in Gaza following the announced completion of Israeli ground operations in these areas earlier in the week, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, said on Wednesday https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152711?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The conflict in Sudan has led to a horrifying surge in violence against children, a new UN report has revealed, underscoring the need for urgent and tangible protection measures. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152706?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

A new UN report published Wednesday into alleged abuses carried out against thousands of Palestinians detained by the Israeli authorities since war erupted in Gaza last October has documented a range of serious violations that may amount to torture. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152681?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Several thousand people, mostly internally displaced persons (IDPs), have been affected as heavy rains and floods inundated parts of Kassala province in eastern Sudan, inflicting further misery on communities already vulnerable due to ongoing conflict, UN agencies have reported. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152676?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has joined the Secretary-General in voicing concern over the situation in Venezuela following the recent presidential election.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152661?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN Security Council on Tuesday lifted the arms embargo on the Central African Republic (CAR) government forces, while calling on all nations to take all necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply of all types of weapons and related material to armed groups operating there. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152656?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

In a bid to prevent a polio epidemic in Gaza, UN humanitarians on Tuesday repeated continuing international calls for a ceasefire to allow a mass vaccination campaign to get underway. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152636?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

In 2015, His Holiness Pope Francis paid an historic visit to UN Headquarters, calling the United Nations “necessary”. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152621?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Nearly a quarter of all adolescent girls who have been in a relationship – close to 19 million – will have experienced intimate partner violence by the time they turn 20, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said in a new analysis on Monday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152616?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The top UN humanitarian official for Gaza said on Monday that the situation in the war-ravaged enclave remains “absolutely catastrophic”, with Palestinian civilians enduring a “horrendous maelstrom of human misery.” https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152611?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has commended the people of Venezuela “for their determination to express their will peacefully through the ballot box,” his Spokesperson said on Monday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152606?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

New forced displacements have continued in Gaza as regional tensions escalate after a deadly strike in the Syrian Golan Heights where 12 youngsters were killed over the weekend, UN humanitarians have said.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152601?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday strongly denounced the increasing attacks on healthcare facilities in Sudan, reporting over 20 such incidents in the last two months. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152596?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Senior UN officials on Monday voiced alarm over the continued escalation in conflict in Myanmar, amid reports of direct targeting of civilians in aerial attacks, and the abduction and forced recruitment of children by armed forces. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152591?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Secretary-General António Guterres and other United Nations officials have condemned Saturday’s rocket attack on a football field in the Golan Heights that killed at least 12 civilians, mainly children and teenagers. Urging restraint, they also warned against escalating violence in the region. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152581?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The World Heritage Committee of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced on Friday that the Monastery of Saint Hilarion/Tell Umm Amer in Palestine has been added to its list of global heritage sites and another for sites in danger.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152571?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Senior UN officials on Friday reiterated the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza, and escalating threat to aid workers, urging immediate action prevent further deterioration. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152566?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Humanitarians estimate that more than 190,000 Palestinians were displaced this week in Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah following the latest evacuation orders in Gaza, the UN said on Friday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152561?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

News of another deadly shipwreck tragedy off the coast of Mauritania is a clear indication of the desperation people on the move continue to face as they attempt to escape strife, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said on Friday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152536?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

A UN inter-agency humanitarian team has reached the area affected by deadly landslides in Ethiopia earlier this week and is supporting the response. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152521?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

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The UN chief on Thursday issued an urgent call to action to better protect billions around the world exposed to crippling effects of extreme heat, as global temperature rise continues unabated. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152496?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

A veteran Canadian diplomat was on Thursday elected President of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), which lies at the centre of the Organization’s efforts to advance sustainable development https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152491?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

As President Biden on Thursday prepared to meet Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss progress on a Gaza ceasefire and the release of all hostages still held in the enclave, the spectre of further hunger and malnourishment continued to loom over Gazans, as UN humanitarians warned that farming and even small-scale gardening remain suspended. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152486?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Recent attacks on three villages in East Sepik province, Papua New Guinea, resulted in at least 26 deaths - including 16 children – an event that has left UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk “horrified”, he said in a statement on Wednesday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152481?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

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Progress fighting global hunger has been set back 15 years, leaving around 733 million people going hungry in 2023, equivalent to one in 11 people globally and one in five in Africa, according to the latest UN State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report published on Wednesday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152451?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

UN agencies alongside humanitarian partners in Malawi have launched a Flash Appeal to help millions in the country stricken by drought that has decimated harvests and sent hunger levels soaring. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152441?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN Secretary-General has welcomed a new agreement signed on Tuesday in Beijing by Hamas and Fatah, together with smaller Palestinian factions, aimed at ending years of political rivalry as the war in Gaza grinds on. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152431?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has thrown its full support behind Cindy Ngamba and Yahya Al Ghotany, the athletes chosen as flag bearers for the Olympic Games which start on Friday in Paris, who will be proudly bear the banner of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152421?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

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Gazans uprooted by the Israeli military’s latest evacuation orders have fled their shelters and homes “running for their lives”, with barely any belongings and little idea where they will end up, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152401?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The world’s forests are becoming increasingly susceptible to wildfires and pests due to climate change, according to a new report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), released Monday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152386?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The threat of regional conflict affecting Syria has not abated, particularly in the face of recent Israeli strikes on the war-torn country, UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen told the Security Council on Monday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152366?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Top UN officials on Monday called for urgent reforms to the international financial system to boost efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152371?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

An immediate increase in HIV services is needed in the countries most affected by the pandemic to end AIDS by 2030, according to a new report by the Global Alliance for Ending AIDS in Children by 2030, released on Monday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152361?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

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A UN convoy has been hit by “heavy shooting” from Israeli forces at a checkpoint while en route to Gaza city, the United Nations agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said on Monday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152351?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has responded to Israel’s airstrikes on the Yemeni port city of Hudaydah, which reportedly killed at least six people and injured more than 80, by calling for all parties involved in the conflict to “exercise utmost restraint”. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152346?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The voices of young female students sounded out across a makeshift classroom tent in the Al Istiqlal camp at the centre of Deir al-Balah in Gaza, against the backdrop of war in the bombarded and besieged enclave as the head of the UN human rights office, OHCHR, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory listened intently. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152341?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The entire social fabric of families is unraveling in Haiti as displacement in the country reaches record numbers due largely to insecurity and gang-related violence, according to Abdoulaye Sawadogo, head of the UN’s humanitarian coordination office, OCHA, in the Caribbean island nation. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152336?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

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On the outskirts of Lebanon’s second capital, Tripoli, lies a Palestinian refugee camp that is almost as old as their plight itself. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152306?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Friday highlighted changes and ongoing challenges in Guatemala – including corruption, racism and gender inequality - following a four-day official visit to the Central American country.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152321?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN relies on cooperation with regional and subregional organizations “now, more than ever” amid mounting global tensions and challenges, a senior official said on Friday in a briefing to the Security Council.    https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152301?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Friday declared that Israel’s continued presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory “is unlawful”, and that “all States are under an obligation not to recognize” the decades-long occupation. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152296?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Heavy fighting in Sudan has severely curtailed humanitarian aid deliveries across vast areas of the southeast, the UN World Food Programme, WFP, said on Friday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152286?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

UN teams and humanitarian partners in Afghanistan are mobilizing in response to devastating windstorms and flash floods that have ravaged eastern regions of the country, resulting in dozens of fatalities and the destruction of hundreds of homes. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/07/1152271?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger