12/08/2014
12 August 2014 – Each year 20 per cent of the world’s young people experience a mental health condition, the United Nations reported in a new publication launched to coincide with International Youth Day which this year shines a spotlight on the importance of mental health.
Image: United Nations
“The United Nations wants to help lift the veil that keeps young people locked in a chamber of isolation and silence,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in his message for the Day, stressing that mental-health should be talked about in the same way as overall health.*
He noted that lack of access to mental health services, stigma, shame, and irrational fears leave people with mental health conditions “more vulnerable to poverty, violence and social exclusion, and negatively impacting society as a whole.”
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12/08/2014
12 August 2014, Geneva (ILO)*— Today some 75 million young people are unemployed globally and more than 220 million young workers are struggling for survival in the informal economy and living in extreme poverty.Young people are, on average, three times more likely to be unemployed than adults – in some places it escalates to four and five times more. Many others are disconnecting from the labour market.*
Youth unemployment | Photo: ILO
The youth employment crisis is a multidimensional crisis. This is undoubtedly a stressful time for young people and in some cases even more so for young women. The theme of this year’s International Youth Day observance “mental health matters” is, therefore, timely.
The scenario of widespread and persistent unemployment or under-employment may leave young people with a sense of growing despair and hopelessness and in a state of heightened vulnerability.The indications are that mental health difficulties have become widespread among youth in recent years. For instance, in many OECD countries up to one in four young people is affected.
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12/08/2014
11 August 2014 – Spotlighting humanitarians who often take great risks to help communities in need, World Humanitarian Day 2014 will feature events ranging from a 5K run/walk in Mogadishu, a wreath-laying ceremony at London’s Westminster Abbey, a radio talk show with disaster management experts in Papua New Guinea, and the launch of a postage stamp honoring the late United Nations humanitarian veteran Sergio Vieira de Mello.*
Sergio Vieira de Mello was one of the 22 people killed and more than 150 people wounded in the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in 2003.
That attack prompted the UN General Assembly to proclaim August 19 each year as World Humanitarian Day to celebrate the spirit of humanitarian work around the world.
“The recent attacks witnessed in Gaza and South Sudan is a reminder of the bravery of aid workers,” Louis Belanger, spokesperson for World Humanitarian Day 2014, told the UN News Centre, referring to the months of July and August that saw an alarming rise in the level of attacks and incidents involving humanitarian workers. “Humanitarians often take great risk to help communities in need and they deserve to be protected.”
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12/08/2014
11 August 2014 – The United Nations Human Rights Council announced today the appointment of three members to its independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate purported violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and particularly in the Gaza Strip since the conflict began on 13 June.*
A young girl waiting to cross into Egypt with her family cries at the Rafah Border Crossing in southern Gaza. Egypt has opened the crossing to allow injured Palestinians to receive treatment. Photo: UNICEF/NYHQ2014-0902/El Baba
In a statement released this afternoon, the Council’s President, Ambassador Baudelaire Ndong Ella (Gabon), announced that the human rights body appointed Amal Alamuddin (United Kingdom), Doudou Diène (Senegal) and William Schabas (Canada) to serve as members on the international Commission. Mr. Schabas will also serve as the Commission’s Chair.
One child has been killed each hour in Gaza over the past two days,” Kyung-Wha Kang, Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator, told the Human Rights Council. UN/Violaine Martin
The Commission aims to establish the facts and circumstances of violations and crimes perpetrated and to identify those responsible. It will also make recommendations, in particular on accountability measures, all with a view to avoiding and ending impunity and ensuring that those responsible are held accountable, and on ways to protect civilians against any further assaults.
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11/08/2014
By Venge Nyirongo*, UN Women – The Hunger Games, the famous multimedia franchise, is not far from the truth. It’s no myth that being food-secure is essential for human dignity and to ensure livelihoods and wellbeing.
Mpondo woman in South Africa | Uploaded by Mangomania | Wikimedia Commons
Yet about 842 million people today live in chronic hunger across the world. Although on the decline, the numbers of the undernourished also continues to remain exorbitantly high. Of these, women and girls remain most affected.
The failure to ensure women’s access to nutritious food has an impact on nutrition for children under five years of age, leading to the loss of lives and cognitive or developmental limitations for those who survive. In many cases, the food-insecure and hungry continue to suffer in silence without a voice to appeal for more equality and fairness in the distribution of resources that would alleviate their plight.
Without a doubt, women are key to food security. Globally, women comprise about 43 percent of the agricultural labour force. Their dedication to both food and cash crops is high, although the returns realized from the market favor men more than women.
The African Development Bank estimates that 90 percent of Africa’s food is produced by women in spite of the fact that few women hold titles to the land they work. Because of this, rural women’s contribution to Africa’s agriculture is important for the persistence and success of their families, communities and local and national economies, and to poverty reduction and sustainable development.
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11/08/2014
Human Wrongs Watch
A resident of Gaza shares his experience under Israeli bombardment: what it feels like in those 10 seconds between the launch of a missile and the explosion upon impact; and what it is like to watch the landmarks of a life’s worth of memories reduced to rubble before your eyes.
Gaza City, 7 August 2014 (IRIN)* – There are about 10 seconds, or at least that is what it feels like, between the launching of the missile and the devastating crash of the explosion. They are the darkest moments of my life. As the sound of the falling missile grows, my stomach lurches, I close my eyes and think of my family. The tape of my life flashes before my eyes as we wait to find out if this is the end.
Photo from IRIN
Then the explosion – sometimes a distant crack, others a devastating boom. I breathe a sigh of relief; all the while knowing it is some other family’s turn to have their lives destroyed. Yet the reprieve is only ever temporary; these moments have been repeated dozens of times every night for the past month as Israel has pounded Gaza, the small Palestinian enclave I call home.
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10/08/2014
Human Wrongs Watch
By Ramzy Baroud*, 4 August 2014, TRANSCEND Media Service — To some, US secretary of state John Kerry may have appeared to be a genuine peacemaker as he floated around ideas during a Cairo visit on 25 July [2014] about a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian fighters in Gaza.
US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets with Israel’s President Shimon Peres in Tel Aviv on July 23, 2014 (AA via MEE) | Re-published from Transcend Media Service
To some, US secretary of state John Kerry may have appeared to be a genuine peacemaker as he floated around ideas during a Cairo visit on 25 July [2014] about a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian fighters in Gaza.
But behind his measured diplomatic language, lies a truth not even America’s top diplomat can easily hide. His country is very much involved in fighting this dirty war on Gaza which has killed over 1,050, injured thousands more, and destroyed much of an already poor, dilapidated space that was barely inhabitable to begin with.
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09/08/2014
They are around 370 people in 90 countries around the world who constitute 15 per cent of the world’s poor and about one third of the world’s 900 million extremely poor rural people. They are the remains of millions of peoples who suffered historical extermination and still face continuos injustices… But they have an International Day!
Participants at the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in May 2014. Photo by Broddi Sigurdarson, United Nations
Marking the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples on 9 August 2014, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said indigenous peoples have a central interest in development and can act as “powerful agents of progress.”*
“In order for them to contribute to our common future, we must secure their rights,” said Ban in his message on the Day, in which he added: “Let us recognize and celebrate the valuable and distinctive identities of indigenous peoples around the world. Let us work even harder to empower them and support their aspirations.”
The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is commemorated annually on 9 August in recognition of the first meeting of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations, held in Geneva in 1982.
“Historical injustices have all too often resulted in exclusion and poverty,” Ban said, adding that power structures continue to create obstacles to indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination.
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07/08/2014
6 August, 2014, Greenpeace* –– Greenpeace believes that peace is the best self-defense, and that war is the biggest threat to the environment. This story is a call for peace by Daisuke Miyachi of Greenpeace Japan. Daisuke is from Hiroshima and his grandmother was one of the surviving victims of the atomic bombing on August 6, 1945.
The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima at 8:15 am on August 6, 1945.
Sixty-nine years have now passed.
Photo from: International Campaign against Nuclear Weapons – ICAN
It unleashed a thermonuclear fury of toxic destruction that indiscriminately destroyed everything within a two mile radius.
The far-reaching radioactive fallout would also leave its unrelenting and unforgiving scars on the people and natural environment of Hiroshima and surround areas.
For the current generation of Japanese and global citizens everywhere, the city’s name has become synonymous with a tale of warning about the wrongs of war.
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07/08/2014
6 August 2014 — One of the great ironies of modern science is that humans are searching for life on other planets while retaining and modernizing weapons of mass destruction that, if used, can destroy all life on planet Earth, said UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon today on the occasion of the 69 anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and, later, Nagasaki.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial. Photo: UNESCO/G. Boccardi
Remembering all those who died in the bombing of Hiroshima and, later, Nagasaki, Ban said that the atrocious memories of that tragedy must inspire new generations to work towards a world free of nuclear weapons.*
“This solemn commemoration connects memories of a tragic past with the vision of a future free of nuclear weapons,” said Ban through a statement delivered by his High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Angela Kane at this year’s Peace Memorial Ceremony in Hiroshima.
“Hiroshima’s many messages of peace and hope have educated the world about the devastating humanitarian consequences of nuclear weapons, inspiring a global campaign focused on the unacceptability of using these arms under international humanitarian and human rights law.”
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 