Category Archives: United Nations

‘I miss school’: 800m children still not fully back in classes

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Rights groups warn that children across the world are being pushed into abusive situations, from early marriage to child labour

Across the world 800 million children are still not fully back in school, Unicef is warning, with many at risk of never returning to the classroom the longer closures go on. There are at least 90 countries where schools are either closed or offering a mix of remote and in-person learning.

The UN agency’s chief of education, Robert Jenkins, told the Guardian that the closures are part of “unimaginable” disruption to children’s education.

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Is Myanmar the new Syria? Rising violence threatens a repeat tragedy

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As ethnic militias back the popular uprising and refugees flee the country, the similarities with Syria are deeply disturbing

In August 2011, Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s then foreign minister, made a “mercy dash” to Damascus. He appealed in person to Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, to stop killing his people and talk to his opponents after five months of anti-regime protests.

Davutoglu spoke for Turkey but also, indirectly, for the US and the west. He had conferred with Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, before making the trip. His message: it’s not too late to call a halt; the alternative is civil war. But Assad turned him down flat.

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‘Suez 2’? Ever Given grounding prompts plan for canal along Egypt-Israel border

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UK prepared to play leading role in project given new impetus by Ever Given blockage, say sources

The blockage of the Suez canal by the beached Ever Given container ship has prompted fresh international efforts to find an alternative to the world’s most important shipping corridor.

UN officials are understood to be reviewing plans to construct a new canal along the Egypt-Israel border, having previously dismissed ideas for a much longer route through Iraq and Syria as too hazardous.

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UN security council must act to stop ‘bloodbath’ in Myanmar, says envoy

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Alternative civilian government proposes ‘federal democracy charter’, amid fears of civil war

Myanmar protesters have burned a copy of the country’s military-drafted constitution as the UN envoy monitoring the crisis warned the security council of the risk of civil war and an imminent “bloodbath” if the junta is allowed to continue violently repressing a pro-democracy movement.

“I appeal to this council to consider all available tools to take collective action and do what is right, what the people of Myanmar deserve, and prevent a multidimensional catastrophe in the heart of Asia,” the special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, told the closed-door session.

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Russian mercenaries accused of human rights abuses in CAR

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UN group of experts deeply disturbed by connections between Wagner Group and violence since election

Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group, a private military contractor, have committed human rights abuses in the Central African Republic while fighting alongside government forces, according to a group of independent UN experts.

The UN working group said it was “deeply disturbed” by the connections between Russian mercenaries and a series of violent attacks that have taken place in the CAR since elections in December.

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UN in talks with China over ‘no restrictions’ visit to Xinjiang

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Mission to check out treatment of Uighur minority is backed by Beijing, says secretary-general António Guterres

The UN has begun negotiations with Beijing for a visit “without restrictions” to Xinjiang to see how the Uighur minority is being treated, secretary-general António Guterres said in an interview broadcast.

At least one million Uighurs and people from other mostly Muslim groups have been held in camps in the north-western region, according to US and Australian rights groups, which accuse Chinese authorities of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labor.

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Saudi accused of threat to Khashoggi UN investigator is human rights chief

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Awwad al-Awwad, former aide of crown prince, denies threatening to ‘take care of’ Agnès Callamard

The Saudi official who is alleged to have twice issued threats against the independent UN investigator Agnès Callamard is the head of the kingdom’s human rights commission, and formerly served as an aide to the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.

Awwad al-Awwad is alleged by a person familiar with the matter to have twice threatened to “take care of” Callamard at a January 2020 meeting with senior human rights officials in Geneva.

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UN resolution hailed as ‘crucial turning point’ for victims of Sri Lanka civil war

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UK-led action ramps up scrutiny of the regime against a backdrop of worsening human rights abuses

Civil rights groups have welcomed a UK-led UN resolution on Sri Lanka as a “crucial turning point for justice” for victims of the country’s nearly 30-year-long conflict.

The resolution, which ramps up international monitoring and scrutiny of the country, was passed on Tuesday by the human rights council after the UN high commissioner for human rights warned Sri Lanka could rapidly descend into violence unless decisive international action was taken. Michelle Bachelet expressed alarm over “worrying trends” in the country since President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office in 2019 and last month told the human rights council the country had “closed the door” on ending impunity for past abuses.

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Over 30 million people ‘one step away from starvation’, UN warns

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The pandemic, climate crisis and conflict combining to drive ‘alarming’ levels of global hunger, says report

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    • Acute hunger is likely to soar in more than 20 countries in the next few months, the UN has warned.

    Families in pockets of Yemen and South Sudan are already in the grip of starvation, according to a report on hunger hotspots published by the agency’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP).

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    Top Saudi official issued death threat against UN’s Khashoggi investigator

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    Senior official twice threatened to have Agnès Callamard ‘taken care of’ in meeting with UN colleagues in Geneva in January 2020

    A senior Saudi official issued what was perceived to be a death threat against the independent United Nations investigator, Agnès Callamard, after her investigation into the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

    In an interview with the Guardian, the outgoing special rapporteur for extrajudicial killings said that a UN colleague alerted her in January 2020 that a senior Saudi official had twice threatened in a meeting with other senior UN officials in Geneva that month to have Callamard “taken care of” if she was not reined in by the UN.

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    ‘We were left in the sea’: asylum seekers forced off Lesbos

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    One refugee’s terrifying story illustrates how ‘pushbacks’ are creating a crisis for the right to asylum at Europe’s borders

    “We were all forced on to the boat. If we looked up they shouted at us and hit us in the head. Then they stopped at a place in the sea where there were no other boats, they left us.”

    Mustafa, his wife and two young children had only been on the Greek island of Lesbos a few hours when, they say, they were driven in a van to the coast, beaten by masked men and then taken out to sea on a raft and abandoned there.

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    Kamala Harris addresses the UN: ‘The status of women is the status of democracy’ – video

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    Kamala Harris spoke about democracy and its connection with women's equality in her debut address to the UN as US vice-president. 'This year, in considering the status of women, especially the participation of women in decision making, we must also consider the status of democracy,' Harris told the 65th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. 'It is a means to establish peace and shared prosperity. It should ensure every citizen, regardless of gender, has an equal voice'

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    Myanmar: UN calls for ‘utmost restraint’ from military as more deaths reported

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    British-drafted UN statement watered down by China, Russia, India and Vietnam, as Amnesty says military using battlefield weapons on protesters

    The United Nations has condemned the Myanmar military’s violent crackdown against anti-coup demonstrators as seven more people were reported shot dead in protests on Thursday.

    Local media, witnesses and medics said six people were shot dead in the central town of Myaing when security forces opened fire on anti-junta protests and domestic media said one man was killed in the North Dagon district of Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city.

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    Governments failing to fulfil talk of green Covid recovery, UN warns

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    Prospect of green focus for rescuing economies in danger unless swift action is taken, environment chief says

    Governments around the world are failing to match their green rhetoric with action in rescuing their economies from the Covid-19 pandemic, the UN has warned, with prospects for a “green recovery” in danger unless swift action is taken.

    Countries are spending an unprecedented $14.6tn (£10.5tn) on trying to prevent economic collapse, seeking to protect jobs and save businesses on the brink of ruin. However, a UN-backed analysis of 50 leading economies has found only $368bn, or about 18%, of the rescue spending so far can be regarded as green.

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    The UN food systems summit will consider all stakeholders’ interests | Letter

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    Dr Agnes Kalibata responds to a report on the 2021 summit that she is leading as a special envoy for the UN secretary general

    As you note in your article (Farmers and rights groups boycott food summit over big business links, 4 March), farmers have for too long been on the fringes of global discussions about hunger, poverty and climate change, despite being the frontline of our food systems and the custodians of our natural resources.

    The UN food systems summit marks a momentous opportunity for farmers, producers and many others who support them to be at the heart of the year-long consultative process that has been launched to improve our shared food system.

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    Quarter of women and girls have been abused by a partner, says WHO

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    Largest such study finds domestic violence experienced by one-in-four teenage girls with worst levels faced by women in their 30s

    One in four women and girls around the world have been physically or sexually assaulted by a husband or male partner, according to the largest study yet of the prevalence of violence against women.

    The report, conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UN partners, found that domestic violence started young, with a quarter of 15- to 19-year-old girls and young women estimated to have been abused at least once in their lives. The highest rates were found to be among 30- to 39-year-olds.

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    China breaching every act in genocide convention, says legal report on Uighurs

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    Thinktank publishes first non-governmental legal examination of China’s actions in Xinjiang

    The Chinese government has breached every single article of the UN genocide convention in its treatment of Uighurs in Xinjiang, and bears responsibility for committing genocide, according to a landmark legal report.

    The 25,000-word report, published by a non-partisan US-based thinktank, is one of the first independent, non-government legal examination of China’s treatment of Uighurs under the 1948 genocide convention.

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    UK ‘balancing books on backs of Yemen’s starving people’, says UN diplomat

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    Exclusive: former DfID secretary Mark Lowcock shocked by decision of Johnson’s government to cut aid

    Ministers have decided to “balance the books on the backs of the starving people of Yemen” in an act that will see tens of thousands die and damage the UK’s global influence, the head of the UN’s Office for Humanitarian Affairs has said.

    Speaking with rare bluntness after the UK more than halved its funds to help Yemen, the former permanent secretary at the Department for International Development Mark Lowcock said he was shocked by the decision. It is understood he was given no chance to appeal to the UK to rethink.

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    Farmers and rights groups boycott food summit over big business links

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    Focus on agro-business rather than ecology has split groups invited to planned UN conference on hunger

    An international food summit to address growing hunger and diet-related disease is in disarray as hundreds of farmers’ and human rights groups are planning a boycott.

    Related: 'A shame for the world': Uganda's fragile forest ecosystem destroyed for sugar

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    Australian senator calls to recognise China’s treatment of Uighurs as genocide

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    Independent Rex Patrick moves after similar parliamentary motions passed in Canada and the Netherlands

    An Australian senator will seek support from fellow upper house members to recognise China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslim minority as genocide, after similar parliamentary motions passed in Canada and the Netherlands.

    The proposed motion – placed on the Senate’s notice paper for 15 March – looms as a test for the major parties at a time when Australia should join the international community in taking a stand, according to the South Australian independent senator Rex Patrick.

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