Archive for August 12th, 2015

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12/08/2015

Youth Day – ‘No One Knows Better than Young People the Issues at Stake in Today’s Rapidly Changing World’

Human Wrongs Watch

12 August 2015 – Marking International Day of Youth, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that no one knows better than young people the issues at stake in today’s rapidly changing world or the best way to respond, and declared: “That is why I am calling on young people to speak out – and I am urging leaders to listen.”

To reap a demographic dividend, countries must empower, educate and employ their young people. Photo: PANDI/ UNFPA Colombia

As the world changes with unprecedented speed, young people are proving to be invaluable partners who can advance meaningful solutions, the Secretary-General stated in a message issued for the Day, observed each year on 12 August.

“Youth movements and student groups are challenging traditional power structures and advocating a new social contract between States and societies. Young leaders have contributed fresh ideas, taken proactive measures, and mobilized through social media as never before,” said Ban.

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12/08/2015

Walking into Danger: Migrants Still Head to Yemen Before They May Reach Their Final Destination, Saudi Arabia.

Human Wrongs Watch

By Katie Riordan*
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HARGEISA, Somaliland, 11 August 2015 (IRIN)* – Qader and Abdi are two weeks into their journey. Carrying only one empty plastic water bottle each, flattened, with no liquid to return it to its cylindrical shape, the two men figure they will be walking for another month-and-a-half before they reach the sea. From there, they will take a smuggler boat the short distance to Yemen, where another 600-kilometre walk lies ahead before they may reach their final destination, Saudi Arabia.
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**Photo: J.Björgvinsson/UNHCR | Exhausted survivors of the Gulf of Aden crossing wait for help on a beach in Yemen (file photo)

**Photo: J.Björgvinsson/UNHCR | Exhausted survivors of the Gulf of Aden crossing wait for help on a beach in Yemen (file photo)

The pair – members of Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, the Oromo, which activists charge is systematically disenfranchised by the government – are walking along an uncrowded road connecting the capital of Somaliland, Hargeisa, to a northern port city.

They walk because they cannot afford the roughly $150-200 that a series of smugglers would charge to take them from the Ethiopian border east through Somaliland to the port of Bosaso in the neighbouring semi-autonomous region of Puntland.

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12/08/2015

‘Deliberate Starvation of Civilians’ in Yemen – UN Expert Warns

Human Wrongs Watch

As Yemen plunges deeper into conflict, which has left millions in need of humanitarian aid and wrecked healthcare systems, the country now finds itself in the midst of a major food crisis, a United Nations expert on 11 August 2015 said as she expressed concern over possibly deliberate starvation of civilians.

A boy pushes a wheelbarrow filled with jerrycans in Sanaa, the Yemeni, capital. Photo: UNICEF/NYHQ2015-1291/Yasin

A boy pushes a wheelbarrow filled with jerrycans in Sanaa, the Yemeni, capital. Photo: UNICEF/NYHQ2015-1291/Yasin

“As the conflict continues to escalate, over 12.9 million people in Yemen are now surviving without adequate access to basic food supplies, including six million who are deemed severely food insecure,” warned Hilal Elver, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, in a press release issued on 11 August.

The situation facing children in the country is particularly alarming, she stressed, with reports suggesting that 850,000 of them face acute malnutrition – a figure that is expected to rise to 1.2 million over the coming weeks, if the conflict persists as its present level.

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12/08/2015

Nobel Peace Laureates Endorse Violence

Human Wrongs Watch

By Robert J. Burrowes*

12 August 2015

In a recent letter to US President Barack Obama twelve Nobel Peace laureates declared their support for the long history of US elite violence against Native Americans and enslaved Africans, as well as the US imperial violence around the world that has butchered tens of millions of people over the past 200 years. See ‘US: An End to Torture: Twelve Nobel Peace Prize laureates write to President Barack Obama asking the US to close the dark chapter on torture once and for all. Obama responds‘.

**Image from: Bilingual in La Marina

**Image from: Bilingual in La Marina | http://blog.educastur.es/lamarinabilingual/

The letter to Obama was signed by ex-President José Ramos-Horta (Timor-Leste, prize recipient in 1996), Archbishop Desmond Tutu (South Africa, 1984), Leymah Gbowee (Liberia, 2011), Mohammad ElBaradei (Egypt, 2005), Jody Williams (USA, 1997), Muhammad Yunus (Bangladesh, 2006), F.W. De Klerk (South Africa, 1993), John Hume (Northern Ireland, 1998), Oscar Arias Sanchez (Costa Rica, 1987), Bishop Carlos X. Belo (Timor-Leste, 1996), Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina, 1980) and Betty Williams (Northern Ireland, 1976).

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Posted in Africa, Asia, Latin America & Caribbean, Market Lords, Middle East, Mother Earth, Others-USA-Europe-etc., The Peoples, War Lords | 1 Comment »

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