Food security crisis means acute malnutrition among under-fives at highest levels since war engulfed the country
Almost 100,000 children under the age of five are at risk of dying in Yemen as the country slides back into a hunger crisis.
An analysis by UN agencies says the coronavirus pandemic, economic problems and conflict have led to the highest levels of malnutrition ever recorded in parts of the country.
Continue reading...Stephanie Williams, the acting head of the United Nations mission in Libya, announced that rival forces in Libya had agreed a permanent nationwide ceasefire, including the departure of all foreign fighters and mercenaries from the country for a minimum of three months.
'This is a good day for the Libyan people,' she said as UN chief António Guterres asked nations to respect the 'fundamental step towards peace and stability in Libya'
Continue reading...UN and World Bank call for structural changes to tackle the effects of the pandemic on children, who make up half the world’s poor
The world’s limited progress in tackling child poverty over recent years could be destroyed by the coronavirus pandemic, the UN and World Bank have warned.
“Slow-paced, unequally distributed” progress meant one in six children were living in poverty even before the pandemic, according to a joint study.
Continue reading...Immediate shopping spree is unlikely after end to military sanctions despite US protests
Iranian officials have hailed the lifting of a 13-year UN arms embargo on their military as a momentous day, claiming they were once again free to buy and sell conventional weapons in an effort to strengthen their country’s security.
The embargo was lifted on Sunday morning despite US protests and was in line with the five-year timetable set out in the Iran nuclear deal, which was signed in 2015.
Continue reading...Result follows warnings from human rights groups that UN body’s credibility at stake
Russia and China have been elected to the UN human rights council for the next three years, but Saudi Arabia failed in its attempt to win a place on the 47-seat body.
The result is a severe blow to the country’s efforts to improve its image in the wake of the admitted killing of the Saudi citizen and Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi.
Continue reading...Rights campaigners voice concerns as Cuba and Pakistan also expected to be elected
China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are expected to be elected to the board of the UN human rights council on Tuesday, leaving human rights campaigners in the countries aghast and pleading with EU states to commit to withholding their support.
The Geneva-based monitoring NGO UN Watch described the situation as the equivalent of allowing five convicted arsonists to join the fire brigade.
Continue reading...Palestinians across Middle East suffering unprecedented poverty, says Philippe Lazzarini
People in Gaza are searching through rubbish to find food as Palestinians battle unprecedented levels of poverty, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has said.
Across Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Gaza and elsewhere, Palestinian refugees are suffering at new depths because of the pandemic, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency chief, Philippe Lazzarini. “There is despair and hopelessness,” he said in an interview.
Continue reading...Tsai Ing-wen says she hopes ‘this is the beginning of genuine change’ after Xi Jinping’s UN speech saying Beijing would never seek hegemony
Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, says she has hopes for less tensions with China and in the region if Beijing will listen to Taipei’s concerns, alter its approach and restart dialogue with the self-ruled island democracy.
Speaking at Taiwan’s national day celebrations on Saturday, Tsai took note of recent remarks by Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, in a video message to the UN general assembly that China would never seek hegemony, expansion or to establish a sphere of influence.
Continue reading...Organisation wins prestigious award for efforts to combat hunger in war-hit areas
The World Food Programme (WFP) has won the 2020 Nobel peace prize for its efforts to combat hunger and to improve conditions for peace in conflict areas.
The chairwoman of the Norwegian Nobel committee, Berit Reiss-Andersen, revealed the 2020 laureate at the Nobel Institute in Oslo, where coronavirus restrictions drastically reduced the usual throng of reporters in attendance.
Continue reading...Narges Mohammadi suffers from neurological condition and was initially sentenced to 10 years in prison
The most prominent human rights activist imprisoned in Iran, Narges Mohammadi, has been released from jail after her sentence was reduced amid renewed fears for her health.
Iran has been hit by a third wave of coronavirus that has seen the daily numbers of new infection break records, with a new high of 4,392 on Thursday.
Continue reading...Human rights groups calling for a probe into president Rodrigo Duterte’s anti-narcotics crackdown say abuses continue
The UN human rights council has been accused of a “collective failure” over its decision not to call for an investigation into the tens of thousands of killings alleged to have occurred under Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”.
Human rights groups and UN experts had repeatedly called for an inquiry into the anti-narcotics crackdown, launched by the president after he won the 2016 election on a promise to rid the country of drugs.
Continue reading...Only seven out of 24 countries have reopened classrooms with Covid-safe measures, leaving millions unable to access education
Only one in three countries in west and central Africa have reopened their schools, leaving children at risk of child marriage, early pregnancy and recruitment by local armed groups, Unicef has warned.
Six months after schools across the region closed under lockdown measures, just seven out of 24 countries – Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Sierra Leone – have been able to put measures in place to make classrooms safe for reopening, including hygiene stations and social distancing.
Continue reading...The Canadian model and Ifad ambassador explains how she and husband Idris Elba hope to make a difference to rural communities in Africa
Since her marriage to British actor Idris Elba last year, Sabrina Dhowre Elba has found her love of Africa being rekindled. But it was her mother who persuaded Elba to take up her new role as an activist.
The actress and Vogue cover model is being credited with convincing the Canadian government to be the first to pledge $6m (£3.5m) to a UN agency Covid fund for struggling farmers after a persuasive Zoom chat with ministers while the Elbas were themselves in isolation with mild cases of the virus.
Continue reading...At least one person killed in Ganja incident, as former Soviet republics move closer to war
Fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh has escalated dramatically after Baku accused Armenian forces of firing rockets at Ganja, which lies outside the contested territory.
At least one civilian was killed and four more injured in the attack on Sunday on Ganja, Azerbaijan’s second largest city, 100km (60 miles) north of the Karabakh capital, Stepanakert.
Continue reading...Women lead protests against conflict violence in Democratic Republic of the Congo, amid calls for action on hundreds of civil war crimes
Women led thousands of people in demonstrations in four cities across the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Thursday, demanding justice for historic murders and rapes committed in the east of the country.
Organisers said police beat protesters in Kisangani, one of the cities, as they marked a decade since the UN documented hundreds of crimes in DRC between 1993 and 2003 that have not been prosecuted.
Continue reading...Armenian prime minister says he regards aggression by Azerbaijan as an ‘existential threat’
The UN security council has called on Armenia and Azerbaijan to immediately halt the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh and urgently resume talks without preconditions as the conflict threatened to escalate beyond the region.
On Tuesday night, the UN’s most powerful body strongly condemned the use of force and backed secretary general Antonio Guterres’ call to stop the fighting, deescalate tensions, and resume talks “without delay”.
Continue reading...Meeting on Tuesday follows two days of fighting over the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh
Explainer: why is there fighting and what are the implications?
The UN security council will hold emergency talks behind closed doors on the ethnic Armenian region of Nagorno-Karabakh, where fighting continued overnight on Monday.
The meeting will be held at 5.00pm ET (2100 GMT) on Tuesday. Belgium formally requested the session, after France and Germany had led a push for it to be placed on the agenda.
Continue reading...Global gender tracker assesses how governments address violence, strengthen women’s economic security and support unpaid caring
Most countries are failing to adequately protect women and girls during the fallout from Covid-19, according to a new UN database that tracks government responses to the pandemic.
The global gender tracker has looked at how 206 countries and territories address violence against women and girls, support unpaid care workers and strengthen women’s economic security.
Continue reading...Police fire shots as crowds of demonstrators demand a vote on secession from Indonesia
Unrest has flared in the restive Indonesian region of Papua with police firing shots during a protest by hundreds of university students in the provincial capital, Jayapura.
The group was demonstrating against plans to extend a special autonomy law that protestors say has not done enough to help people in one of the country’s poorest regions.
Continue reading...The president’s baiting of China and Iran and shabby deals in the Gulf show he will risk almost anything to win re-election
It’s clear Donald Trump will do almost anything to cling to office. Lie about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s dying wish? Go for it. Label Joe Biden a radical socialist? Silly, but worth a punt. Start a war with China or Iran? Pause right there. This is not beyond the realms of possibility, given his pathological need to win.
As November’s poll nears, Trump is weaponising foreign policy – not to defend US security and national interests, but to help him grab a second term. It’s not about putting “America First”. It’s all about putting “Trump First” – by any dangerous means, and at any cost.
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