'Unseen' News and Views
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on 19 February 2016 highlighted the publication of a new study that quantifies, for the first time, how much crop yields depend on the work of bees that unknowingly fertilize plants as they move from flower to flower.
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A new study suggest that poorly performing farms could significantly increase their crop yields by attracting more pollinators to their land. Photo: FAO/James Cane
19 February 2016 – Following a mission to Afghanistan, the United Nations envoy dealing with children and armed conflict issues, has welcomed the Government’s recommitment to fully implementing its plan to end and prevent the recruitment and use of children in the national security forces.
Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Leila Zerrougui addressing a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: UNAMA/Fardin Waezi
“The political will and progress I have seen on the ground are encouraging. The Government’s commitment will be instrumental to turn the page on the recruitment and use of children in the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF),” stated Leila Zerrougui, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict, in a press release.
With senior United Nations officials warning of escalating inter-communal violence and rampant human rights violations in South Sudan, the Security Council on 19 February 2016 strongly condemned all attacks and provocations against civilians and the UN by armed actors, and called for calm on all sides.
Women and children arrive in the Bentiu Protection of Civilians site for internally displaced people, in Unity State, South Sudan. Photo: UNICEF/Sebastian Rich
In a statement to the press, the Council condemned “in the strongest terms” violence committed by elements of the Shilluk and Dinka communities, which erupted in the protection of civilians site in Malakal managed by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), on February 17 and which continued into yesterday, resulting in more than 18 deaths and 50 injuries.
TRIPOLI, 18 February 2016 (IRIN) – on the fifth anniversary of Libya’s uprising against Muammar Gaddafi, there isn’t much to celebrate for the residents of Bin Jawad. Once at the heart of the 2011 rebellion, they have either fled for their lives or find themselves under the brutal rule of so-called Islamic State.
As the European Union summit starts in Brussels, a United Nations expert on the human rights of migrants on 18 February 2016 warned that it has become impossible in Europe to have a meaningful discussion about migrant’s rights, diversity, and integration.
On 26 August 2015, a distressed child rests over the shoulder of the man carrying him, in the town of Gevgelija, on the border with Greece and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Photo: UNICEF/Tomislav Georgiev
“Europe has always been a strong advocate of human rights in Europe and elsewhere,” said François Crépeau, the UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, in a statement.
“In its struggle to maintain control of its borders however, it is being tested on its adherence to human rights. Through slowly stripping away the rights of asylum-seekers and migrants, Europe is creating a scary new ‘normal,’” he added.
**Children in Aleppo | Great Mosque of Aleppo | Author: yeowatzup from Katlenburg-Lindau, Germany | Source: Umayyad Mosque, Aleppo, Syria | Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. | Wikimedia Commons
Research assistant Blance Soussous showing packed parboiled rice. Credit: Busani Bufana/IPS
Due to fast urbanizing Africa, consumption of rice is growing by six per cent annually. “Rice is important for Africa food security and the reasons are clear,” AfricaRice Center, Deputy Director General, Marco Wopereis, told IPS.
The 193-member United Nations General Assembly on 18 February 2016 honored the memory of former Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who passed away on Tuesday [15 February] at the age of 93, recalling his legacy in helping the world body find its footing in a new global landscape during the tumultuous early 1990s.
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali is shown addressing a press conference at United Nations Headquarters on 1 February 1994. UN Photo/Milton Grant
Adressing the Assembly’s special tribute at UN Headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Boutros-Ghali had both the fortune and the misfortune to serve as the first post-Cold-War UN chief.
“While the United Nations was never as paralyzed during the Cold War as many have portrayed, the new dynamic gave the Organization new leeway to act. This brought promise and peril – and Boutros-Ghali experienced both,” Ban said.
Boutros Boutros-Ghali, veteran Egyptian diplomat and the first United Nations Secretary-General from Africa, on 16 February 2016 passed away at the age of 93. He is being praised for guiding the Organization through the tumultuous early 1990’s and for helping shape the UN’s response to post-Cold War realities, drafting a seminal report on preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peacekeeping.
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On 2 January 1992, Boutros Boutros-Ghali (right), Secretary-General of the United Nations, arrives at the Secretariat Entrance for his first working day at the United Nations. Aly Teymour, Chief of Protocol, escorts him into the building. UN Photo/John Isaac
The UN Security Council announced Mr. Boutros-Ghali’s death this morning, after which the 15-member held a moment of silence.
Mr. Boutros-Ghali had a long association with international affairs as a diplomat, jurist, scholar and widely published author.
Rome, 16 February 2016 – It is no coincidence that Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who died on Feb. 16, was the only Secretary-General in the history of the United Nations to have served only one of the two terms that have always been allowed. The United States vetoed his re-election, in spite of the favourable vote of the other members of the Security Council. He was considered too independent.
Photo: UNON – United Nations Office at Nairobi
We have now forgotten that in 1992, on U.S. request, Boutros Ghali authorized a UN intervention in Somalia, run by a U.S. general, the aim of which was to distribute 90 million dollars of food and aid to the former Italian colony, shaken by an internal conflict among several war lords.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 
