13/01/2016
The number of international migrants worldwide has continued to grow. Back in 2000, there were 173 million international migrants, in 2010 there were 222 million, and this past year in 2015, 244 million migrants, the UN reported.*
Migrants and refugees from several countries arrive by special train in Berlin, Germany. Photo: UNICEF/Ashley Gilbertson VII
Presenting the key finding of the latest United Nations survey on international migrant trends, the UN Deputy Secretary-General on 12 January 2016 stressed that the issue of migration is one of the most challenging and important that the Organization is taking on in the new global landscape.
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13/01/2016
Nearly 24 million children living in crisis zones in 22 strife-torn countries are being deprived of a school education, threatening their own future and that of their societies, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on 12 January 2016 reported
On 5 January 2016, during a school day, 9 year old Ayman sells candies in the streets of Kafar Batna village in Rural Damascus, Syria. Photo: UNICEF/Amer Al Shami
“Children living in countries affected by conflict have lost their homes, family members, friends, safety, and routine. Now, unable to learn even the basic reading and writing skills, they are at risk of losing their futures and missing out on the opportunity to contribute to their economies and societies when they reach adulthood,” UNICEF Chief of Education Jo Bourne said.
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13/01/2016
The African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on 12 January 2016 expressed concern over continued tension in El Geneina town and around Mouli village, 15 kilometers south of El Geneina, West Darfur, after an armed attack on Mouli village.
A landscape view of El Geneina town, the capital of West Darfur, Sudan. Photo: UNAMID/Hamid Abdulsalam
“Receiving reports of continuous unrest and sporadic firing across El Geneina and in Mouli with an undetermined number of casualties, UNAMID calls on the government authorities to exert their utmost efforts to contain the situation and investigate the incidents,” the Mission said in a press statement issued on 11 January 2016.
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11/01/2016
By Johan Galtung*
11 January 2016 – TRANSCEND Media Service
Baher Kamal, in –And All of a Sudden Syria!: “The “big five” /the UN veto powers/ have just agreed /Res 2254 of 18-12-2015/–time to end the Syrian five-year long human tragedy–they waited until 300,000 innocent civilians were killed–4,5 million humans lost as refugees and homeless at home, hundreds of field testing of state-of-the-art drones made, and daily US, British, French and Russian bombing carried out”. No Chinese bombing.
Johan Galtung
One term in the resolution, road map, already spells failure.
There is another reason: missing issues. But something can be done. Roads twist, turn and may be far from straight. Traveling a road is a linear, one step or mile-stone after another, process, by the map.
The West loves linearity; as causal chains (“falling dominoes”) from a root cause; as deductive chains from axioms; as ranks from high to low.
However, is that not how the world is, moving in time, causes-effects, axioms-consequences, rank, power, over others? Are roads not rather useful? They are. Is there an alternative to a road map? There is.
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11/01/2016
By Catherine Shakdam*
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10 January 2016 (RT) – There is a new trend in town and it involves children – to be more precise it involves the criminalization of children based on their parents’ religious denomination. America is now ready to take on sectarian profiling to a whole new level of crazy.
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© UNICEF Syrian Arab Republic/2015/Soliman | Sisters Ghaithaa, Israa and Aisha, at home. The girls have suffered great loss during the Syrian conflict and find some solace in a child-friendly space in Qamishli.
Muslims are once more at the center of a budding storm, a new trend looking to criminalize not faith, or even ethnicity, but children.
If you thought neoconservatives and their fear-mongering legions could not stoop any lower, with their calls for ethno-sectarian profiling and monitoring of communities’ activities under the convenient banner of national security, you are in for a rude awakening.
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11/01/2016
The UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, on 10 January 2016 concluded his regional consultations with meetings in Tehran, where he received assurances from his interlocutors that regional current tensions would not affect Iran’s engagement in facilitating the holding of upcoming Geneva talks on ending the crisis in Syria.
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Heavily damaged buildings in Homs, Syria. Photo: UNICEF/Juliette Touma
According to a note issued by the Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, de Mistura told a press conference in the Iranian capital that he had useful exchanges with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Deputy Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian.
De Mistura updated his interlocutors on preparations for the upcoming Geneva talks on Syria.
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11/01/2016
The African Union (AU) will hold it 26th Summit from 21st to the 31st January 2016, at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The theme of the Summit is: “2016: African Year of Human Rights with particular focus on the Rights of Women.”
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Credit: Commission of the African Union
Meanwhile, the AU has reaffirmed its solidarity with the Sahawai people “in their struggle for self determination,” and congratulated the “Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic for smooth and peaceful Congress and elections.”
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08/01/2016
Briefing UN Member States on 7 January 2016 on the widely varied and devastating impacts of the current El Niño weather phenomenon – which for months has sparked massive floods in some countries while leaving others, often in the same region, bone dry – the top UN relief official urged the international community to act now to help millions of people facing food insecurity.
A mother carries her daughter as they evacuate from Typhoon Koppu-hit town of Laur, Philippines, on 19 October 2015. The ongoing El Niño pattern is likely to be one of the strongest since 1998 and will continue into early 2016. Photo: UNICEF/Jeoffrey Maitem
“We are here to re-sound the alarm; to spur a collective response to the humanitarian suffering caused by changes in weather patterns linked to El Niño and to take action now to mitigate its effects,” said Stephen O’Brien, the UN Under-Secretary-General for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
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08/01/2016
Condemning the demolition by Israeli authorities of the homes of Palestinian Bedouins in the West Bank, a senior United Nations relief official on 7 January 2016 called on Israel to end such destruction and halt its plans to forcibly relocate Bedouin families.
Israeli authorities demolished Bedouin homes in the vulnerable community of Abu Nwar, Area C, near East Jerusalem in the West Bank. Photo: UNRWA
“The humanitarian consequences of this destruction of property are grave and I am seriously concerned, particularly about the children who are now homeless,” said Felipe Sanchez, the Director of West Bank Operations for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
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08/01/2016
By John Braddock*
5 January 2016 (wsws) – In its biggest military re-armament program since the end of the Vietnam War, the country’s leadership is accelerating a decade-long drive to modernise its armed forces.
**Vietnamese President Trương Tấn Sang with his first lady during the Moscow Victory Day Parade, 9 May 2015 | Kremlin.ru | Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. | Wikimedia Commons
A Reuters report, “Vietnam builds military muscle to face China,” published on December 18, said Hanoi was seeking to “deter” China as tensions rise over disputes in the South China Sea. If that fails, Vietnam is rapidly preparing “to be able to defend itself on all fronts” the article claimed.
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 