Human rights through the eyes of Andy Vermaut

The devastating lack of adequate care for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Sudan, including sexual and reproductive healthcare and psychosocial care, has had “dire” repercussions, independent UN experts said on Friday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153801?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

UN Secretary-General António Guterres told parliamentarians in Timor-Leste on Friday the world has much to learn from their inspirational struggle for self-rule, 25 years to the day since the historic referendum which paved the way for independence in 2002.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153786?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

A UN independent human rights expert on Friday condemned recent terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso, which resulted in approximately 200 deaths, and in Pakistan, where 28 civilians lost their lives. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153776?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN’s top relief official on Friday allocated $100 million from the Organization’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to bolster critically underfunded humanitarian operations in some of the world’s humanitarian hotspots. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153766?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

UN aid teams have reached a tentative agreement with parties involved in the war in Gaza for humanitarian pauses to allow 640,000 children to be vaccinated amid an outbreak of the virus, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153761?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN Secretary-General has called for global action to “vanquish racism and discrimination” towards people of African descent, in his message marking the international day highlighting the diaspora.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153756?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Condom use among sexually active adolescents has declined significantly since 2014, with rates of unprotected sex worryingly high, according to a new report from the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Europe.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153741?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Over 18 million people in Bangladesh have been affected by severe monsoon conditions, with more than 1.2 million families trapped as flash floods submerge vast areas of the country’s east and southeast. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153726?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

As the crisis in the West Bank continues to escalate alongside the ongoing war in Gaza, UN Secretary-General António Guterres has called for an “immediate cessation” of Israeli military operations in the occupied Palestinian territory. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153716?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Thirty months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, human suffering continues to worsen amid alarming reports of attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, including nuclear facilities, a senior UN political affairs official told the Security Council on Wednesday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153706?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

More than 2,000 nuclear tests have been conducted at over 60 sites around the world since testing began on 16 July 1945, resulting in uninhabitable lands and long-term health problems, Secretary General António Guterres said in his message marking Friday’s International Day to end testing once and for all.   https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153696?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Senior UN officials warned the Security Council on Wednesday that the world cannot afford to lose focus on Syria, as the humanitarian and political crisis continues to wreak havoc on the country more than a decade after civil war erupted. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153681?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Nigeria received 10,000 doses of mpox vaccines on Tuesday, becoming the first African country to obtain vaccines aimed at combating the spread of the new strain of mpox virus. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153676?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Amid further raids, airstrikes and settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, warned that the Israeli military’s actions risked further enflaming an “already explosive situation”. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153656?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Around 20 villages in eastern Sudan have reportedly been “destroyed”, with 70 impacted overall, after floodwaters burst through a major dam, according to UN humanitarians – adding to the suffering of communities already devastated by the ongoing war between rival militaries. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153651?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The United Nations has upheld the safety of the polio vaccine that will be administered to more than half a million Palestinian children during an inoculation campaign in Gaza.   https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153641?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

A new morality law enacted by the Taliban in Afghanistan, cements policies that “completely erase” women’s presence in public, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday, calling for it to be immediately revoked. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153631?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

China still has “many problematic laws and policies” regarding the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region two years after the UN human rights office, OHCHR, published a report on serious violations against the Uyghur and other predominantly Muslim communities, a spokesperson said on Tuesday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153621?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a “global SOS” from Tonga in the Pacific on Tuesday, urging governments to step up climate action to “Save Our Seas” as two new reports revealed how rising sea levels are threatening the vulnerable region and beyond.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153606?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The level of the sea globally is rising faster and higher than ever before, creating what the United Nations has described as an “urgent and escalating threat” to people around the world. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153596?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Seventy-five years since the ratification of the Geneva Conventions, a former child soldier-turned foreign minister of Sierra Leone has urged greater international support for the key accords, highlighting their importance in rehabilitating him and tens of thousands of his fellow compatriots following the country’s bitter civil war. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153586?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine has condemned deadly Russian missile and drone strikes that began overnight and reportedly targeted 15 regions of the country.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153551?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

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The island nations of the Pacific are “showing the way” to protect the planet from the ravages of climate change and now the rest of the world needs to step up with more support, the UN chief said on Monday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153541?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Against the backdrop of another major escalation across the Blue Line dividing southern Lebanon and Israel on Sunday, the UN’s top Middle East envoy said on Sunday “there is no time to lose” for a ceasefire in Gaza and release of all hostages. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153536?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Mariza Ahmadi made a difficult choice three years ago. She had been working as a midwife at the Ahangaran family health house in Bamyan province for just one year when the Taliban seized control of the country in August 2021. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153531?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

A Filipino man has been describing the outpouring of emotion as two families on the island of Mindanao settled a 30-year-long feud that escalated from tit-for-tat killings into a dispute involving two factions of a former insurgency movement. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153526?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

“Welcome Mister President, Madame President,” says the current President of the General Assembly, Dennis Francis. He ushers high schoolers Erik Ponomarev and Fariha Akter into his office before his bilateral meeting with the top diplomat who holds a different presidency for the month of September – the Security Council. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153521?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The current mpox outbreak “can be controlled and can be stopped”, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) emphasized on Friday, announcing an action plan that calls for $135 million over the next six months.   https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153511?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The United Kingdom must take action to curb racist hate speech and xenophobic rhetoric, a UN human rights body said on Friday, following recent riots that rocked the country.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153496?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

A 10-month-old girl paralyzed by polio in Gaza has become the first confirmed case of the deadly disease to be detected in the war-ravaged enclave in 25 years. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153486?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Protecting war-weary people in Sudan from a second deadly cholera outbreak is proving a huge challenge for aid teams after more than 16 months of heavy fighting, combined with flooding and ongoing access obstacles, they reported on Friday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153481?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Years of underfunding of humanitarian aid and increasing needs have put millions of Haitians at risk of chronic vulnerability, according to a newly released UN report. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153476?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

As the world marks the International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief on Thursday, the UN Secretary-General urges a renewed global commitment to ensuring everyone can live free from "fear, stigma, and persecution," regardless of their religion or beliefs.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153471?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

“We need a ceasefire now,” says the top UN official for Middle East peace, briefing the Security Council. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153441?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

UN aid teams have warned that vital chorine supplies that are essential for purifying water are running out and deteriorating in Gaza, while humanitarians condemned new strikes on schools sheltering people displaced by the war.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153436?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Pacific island nations threatened by rising oceans, debt and geopolitical tensions can only fight back if international lenders agree to fairer terms for vital development funding and the world’s biggest polluters make a “massive increase” in contributions to address “climate chaos”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153431?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

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Violence cost the world nearly $20 trillion last year, but investment in peace and conflict prevention has been steadily decreasing, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Wednesday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153416?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

“Continuous” Israeli military evacuation orders in Gaza threaten already extremely vulnerable people in the enclave with further forced displacement, raising concerns that vital services could soon be cut off, UN humanitarians warned on Wednesday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153406?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The spread of mpox across the Horn, eastern and southern Africa has increased the risk of infection for migrants who need “crucial” healthcare and other support ahead of an “anticipated surge” in cases, the UN migration agency (IOM) said on Wednesday, in an appeal for $18.5 million to fund the response. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153401?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The urgency of deescalating tensions along the frontier that separates Lebanese and Israeli armed forces, “cannot be overstated”, a senior UN humanitarian official said on Tuesday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153391?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The UN’s top humanitarian official in Ukraine on Tuesday condemned “yet another attack" carried out by Russian forces in the eastern Donetsk region. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153386?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Recent “unilateral acts” by rival sides in Libya have led to a rapid deterioration in political and economic stability coupled with rising insecurity, a senior UN official in the country told the Security Council on Tuesday.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153376?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

The swift spread of a new virulent strain of the mpox virus across Africa triggered the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it once again a public health emergency of international concern last week. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153361?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

On Monday, UN authorities in Sudan confirmed that truckloads of food and supplies have been approved to cross the border from Chad through the Adre crossing. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153351?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on Monday for Houthi rebels in Yemen to immediately and unconditionally release UN staff, humanitarians, diplomatic personnel and others who have been detained for more than two months.  https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153341?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

A surge in conflict combined with torrential rains and floods is deepening the crisis in Myanmar, leading to a surge in displacement, UN humanitarians have said. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153336?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

As the aid worker community commemorated fallen colleagues at solemn ceremonies marking World Humanitarian Day on Monday, frontline staff putting their lives on the line today highlighted the risks of providing help to vulnerable communities. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153326?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

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The new head of the UN agency working to make cities more sustainable is optimistic about how urban planning can meet people’s need for adequate housing - while also protecting the planet.   https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153271?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

Acute malnutrition is escalating in children in Government-controlled areas in Yemen, UN agencies and partners said in a report published on Sunday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153316?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has commended the decision by the Sudanese authorities to reopen a crucial corridor for aid to enter the war-ravaged country, his spokesperson said on Saturday. https://news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2024/08/1153311?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger