Archive for March, 2015

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16/03/2015

Pulled in Two Directions – A Syrian Family from Raqqa Flee Again and Again

Human Wrongs Watch

By Susannah George*

“Our life before the war was very ordinary,” says Wazzam, thinking back to the years his family spent in Raqqa, Syria. “Our doors were open all night. We feared nothing. It was difficult at times to find work, but our minds were at peace because it was safe.”

Source: UNHCR

Source: UNHCR

13 March 2015 – The long journey he has since made with his wife, Ayesha, and their six children from their home in eastern Syria to a refugee camp in southern Turkey traces the arc of the country’s devastating conflict, which is now entering its fifth year.

Raqqa, their former home and the provincial capital of Syria’s oil-rich eastern province, has been engulfed in unrest for well over a year. There were months of bombardment from the air and land as opposition groups fought street battles with government forces. Then those groups turned on each other, fighting for months for dominance.

Wazzam remembers those days and nights vividly. As fighting spread and intensified, he says, the city of 500,000 people descended into lawlessness.

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16/03/2015

Failure to End Crisis in Syria 'diminishes us all'

Human Wrongs Watch

As the Syrian conflict enters its fifth year, it is shameful that even the basic demand for full humanitarian access has not been met, Oscar-winning actress and United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) Special Envoy, Angelina Jolie said on 14 March 2015.

UNHCR Special Envoy Angelina Jolie (right) records the stories of refugees who have just escaped the war in Syria at the Jaber border crossing in Jordan on 18 June 2013. Photo: UNHCR/O. Laban-Mattei

“It is deeply alarming that the international response so clearly falls short of what is needed to end the conflict in Syria,” Jolie emphasized in a statement.*

According to the UN, over 220,000 Syrians have been killed, and almost half of the country’s men, women and children have been forced to flee their homes since the conflict in Syria erupted in March 2011.

More than 4 million people have sought refuge in neighbouring countries, while a further 7.6 million are displaced within Syria.

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16/03/2015

How Disasters Drive Displacement – and What Should Be Done about It

Human Wrongs Watch

By Kristy Siegfried*

LONDON, 13 March 2015 (IRIN)* – The risk of people being displaced by natural disasters has quadrupled in the last 40 years and, unless governments adopt national and global plans to address the main drivers of displacement, increasing numbers of people will lose their homes to floods, earthquakes and landslides in the future.

**Photo: Jefri Aries/IRIN | Survivors survey the ruins of their former homes after the 2004 tsunami that hit West Aceh

This is the main message of a report released on Thursday [12 March 2015] by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) ahead of the third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction due to take place in Sendai, Japan in the coming days.

UN member states are expected to adopt a global plan to reduce disaster risk that will build on the Hyogo Framework for Action adopted 10 years ago.

The Hyogo Framework addressed disaster risk reduction but not the risk of being displaced by a disaster.

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16/03/2015

Libya ‘Cannot Wait’ for Solution, UN Special Envoy

Human Wrongs Watch

Meetings in Morocco arranged by the United Nations that brought together participants in the Libyan political dialogue have concluded on 13 March 2015, having covered substantive and procedural issues on the way forward.

Special Representative and head of the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) Bernardino León briefs the press in Morocco. Photo: UNSMIL

The UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has proposed resuming the political dialogue next Thursday, 19 March, in Morocco, with the time between to allow for more consultations and further work on the draft documents that were presented in the earlier discussions.8

“This is a dialogue, whose purpose is to reach a solution and to reach a solution because Libya cannot wait anymore,” the Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of UNSMIL, Bernardino Leon, told a news conference after the meetings ended.

“The Mission hopes that the parties will come back next Thursday ready to address the final stage of the talks.”

In Morocco, participants renewed their commitment to the dialogue as the sole mechanism for the resolution of political differences and noted the need to work quickly to reach agreement to draw Libya out of its crisis and bring peace and stability.

“The crisis in Libya is deepening in all aspects, in political security, economic and financial aspects,” Leon said.

“We have conveyed to the parties a sense of urgency. Libya has no time.”

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13/03/2015

For Whom to Vote?

Human Wrongs Watch

By Uri Avnery*

14 March 2015

Uri Avnery

Uri Avnery

ONCE A Soviet citizen went to vote. He was given a sealed envelope and told to put it in the ballot box.

“Could I possibly see for whom I am voting?” he asked timidly.

“Of course not!” the official answered indignantly, “in the Soviet Union, we respect the secrecy of the ballot!”

In Israel, elections are also secret. Therefore I shall not tell you for whom I shall vote. Certainly I shall not be so impertinent as to tell my readers how to vote. But I shall set out the reasoning that will guide me.

WE ARE voting for a new government, that will lead Israel for the next four years.

If this were a beauty contest, I would vote for Yair Lapid. He is so very handsome.

If we had to decide who is the most likeable candidate, it would probably be Moshe Kahlon. He seems a very nice guy, the son of a poor, Oriental Jewish family, who as Minister of Communications has broken the monopoly of the cellphone tycoons. But sympathy has nothing to do with it.

If we were seeking a nice, well-mannered guy, Yitzhak Herzog would be the obvious candidate. He is honest, of good family.

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13/03/2015

The ‘Acapulco Paradox’

Human Wrongs Watch

By Roberto Savio*

Rome, 14 March 2015 — The world is clearly splitting into two parallel worlds, with each going its own way, in what we could call the ‘Acapulco paradox’.

Roberto Savio

Roberto Savio

Take the official version of the image of Acapulco – a splendid Mexican resort, with horse riding on the beaches, a place blessed by nature and enriched by beautiful villas, gourmet restaurants, a place of bliss and relaxation.

Now take the version of the people living there – a place torn by criminal gangs with several deaths every day, where locals live in fear and total insecurity.

In the same way, there are now two ways to look at global reality.

One is the macroeconomic approach based on global data and, according to which, Greece has been doing better along with Italy, Portugal and Spain. In those countries, macroeconomic data are improving. Spain is even being touted as the example of how a country, which went through the bitter pill of austerity, now has growth at the same level as Germany.

Then, speak with young people, among whom unemployment is close to 40 percent, or with pensioners, or with those working in the hospital and education sectors, and you get a totally different picture. According to Caritas, the number of people living in misery has doubled in the last seven years.

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13/03/2015

As Islamic State Retreats, Aid Workers Uncover Human Toll

Human Wrongs Watch

By Louise Redvers*

Baghdad/London, 12 March 2015 (IRIN)*  – A week after launching a major offensive to recapture the city of Tikrit, pro-government forces in Iraq claim they are close to reclaiming large parts of territory held by militants from the group calling itself Islamic State (IS).

**Photo: Louise Redvers/IRIN | Samira Said, 27, fled Tikrit when the Islamic State took over (File photo)

But for aid agencies the work in Tikrit is just beginning – with large numbers of people displaced by the violence, many for the second and third time, and in urgent need of food and shelter.

Security sources told IRIN that 146 families – around 900 people – displaced from Albu Ajeel and Al-Door districts in eastern Tikrit had gathered in Al-Mutasim, to the south of the city, and a further 462 families  – around 2,770 people – uprooted from across Salah al-Din were now in Samarra.

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13/03/2015

14 Million Children Impacted by Conflict in Syria and Iraq – UNICEF

Human Wrongs Watch

New York/Amman  – Some 14 million children across the region are now suffering from the escalating conflict sweeping Syria and much of Iraq, UNICEF on 12 March 2015  said.
© UNICEF/MENA2014-00067/Romenzi Five-year-old Iman from Syria at the Saadnayel camp in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

© UNICEF/MENA2014-00067/Romenzi
Five-year-old Iman from Syria at the Saadnayel camp in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

With the conflict in Syria now entering its fifth year, the situation of more than 5.6 million children inside the country remains the most desperate. That includes up to 2 million children who are living in areas of the country largely cut off from humanitarian assistance due to fighting or other factors. Some 2.6 million Syrian children are still out of school.

Almost 2 million Syrian children are living as refugees in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and other countries. This is in addition to the 3.6 million children from vulnerable communities hosting refugees, who themselves are suffering due to the strain on services like education and health.

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13/03/2015

UN Proposes ‘Bold and Innovative’ Measures by Europe to Reduce Lives Lost at Sea

Human Wrongs Watch

The United Nations refugee agency on 12 March 2015 announced that it has sent a letter to the European Union asking for a robust search-and-rescue operation in the Mediterranean Sea as part of a number of “bold and innovative” solutions to prevent more refugees and migrants losing their lives at sea.

Tens of thousands of desperate people are attempting to cross the Mediterranean and reach Europe in dangerous boats like these in Libya. Photo: UNHCR/F. Noy

So far this year, around 470 people have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean as they undertake perilous journeys to seek safety, compared to 15 in the same period last year, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).*

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13/03/2015

'700 Years Needed to Reach Gender Parity in Kids’ Media

Human Wrongs Watch

Actress Geena Davis on 12 March 2015 told a standing-room only event on gender and the media at the United Nations that the paucity of female characters in entertainment media for young children can be changed overnight, saying: “We don’t have to fix the ‘unconscious bias’ they are raised with later on. We can fix it from the very beginning.”

UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka (left) and actress Geena Davis, founder and chair of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Photo: UN Women/Ryan Brown (file)

The Academy Award-Winning Actor, who founded the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, said the data from her research shows “disturbing” results of how “profoundly fewer” female characters are in family movies and television programmes aimed at young children under the age of 11.*

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