'Unseen' News and Views
Border guards in Bangladesh refused entry to Rohingya refugees from Myanmar in 2012. Credit: Anurup Titu/IPS
The existing system, which was established after World War II, is struggling to cope with record numbers of displaced persons, Peter Sutherland, the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for International Migration said at an event at the International Peace Institute in New York last week.
Global temperatures for the first six months of this year reached new highs, setting 2016 on track to be the hottest-ever on record, the United Nations weather agency on 21 July 2016 said.
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“Another month, another record. And another. And another. Decades-long trends of climate change are reaching new climaxes, fuelled by the strong 2015/2016 El Niño,” said World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Secretary-General Petteri Taalas in a press release.
26 July 2016 – The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a United Nations specialized agency, will set up a committee to examine whether a 54 degrees Celsius temperature recently recorded in Kuwait, has set the new highest temperature for Asia, as well as for the entire Eastern hemisphere.
Dohuk, Iraq, Sharia camp (file). Photo: OCHA/Gwen McClure
The region saw unusually high temperatures with Mitrabah, Kuwait, reporting a temperature of 54 degrees Celsius (129.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on 21 July, and the city of Basra in Iraq reporting 53.9 degrees Celcius (128 Fahrenheit) on Friday 22 July.
Southern Morocco also saw temperatures of between 43 degrees and 47 degrees Celsius.
DAYLESFORD, Australia, 27 July, 2016 — Two of the drivers of world affairs that manifest in the daily decisions that affect our lives are ideology and religion.
**The Yazılıkaya sanctuary in Turkey, with the twelve gods of the underworld. Credit: Klaus-Peter Simon. Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
Ideology is the term widely used to describe the underlying set of values, myths, ideas, attitudes, beliefs and doctrine that shape the behavioural approach to political, economic, social, cultural and/or ecological activities of an individual or organisation.
This organisation might be a political party, government, multinational corporation, terrorist group, non-government organisation, community or activist group.
– A Chinese curse is “May you live in interesting times”. That meant that too many events would disrupt the essential elements of harmony, on which the Chinese pantheon is based.
Roberto Savio
We certainly live in very interesting times where every day dramatic events pile on us, from terrorism to coup d’etat, from climate disaster to the decline of institutions and ever increasing social turmoil.
It would be important, even if very difficult, to look in a nutshell why we are in this situation now – “lack of harmony.” So here goes a dramatically compressed explanation.
Let us start from a little known fact. After the Second World War, there was a general consensus on the need to avoid the repetition of its horrors.
The United Nations served as the meeting place for all countries, and the Cold War created as a reaction, an association of the newly independent countries, the Non Aligned countries, which acted as a buffer between the East and West camps.
More, the North South divide become the most important aspect of international relations. So much so that in 1973, the United Nations General Assembly adopted unanimously a resolution on a New International Economic Order (NIEO).
Peru is carrying out a strategy to eliminate mother-to-child-transmission of hepatitis B. The most important preventative intervention is the universal vaccination, which can prevent infection in 95 per cent of cases. Photo credit: PAHO
A staggering 95 per cent of people infected with hepatitis B or C do not know they are infected, often living without symptoms for many years, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warns. And over 90% of people with hepatitis C can be completely cured within 3–6 months.
– In order to escape poverty and support their families back home, thousands of domestic workers from South and South-East Asia migrate to Oman with the promise of stable employment in local households.
Domestic migrant workers from South and South-East Asia are now considered Oman’s “modern-day slaves”. Credit: Zofeen Ebrahim/IPS
Once they arrive in Oman, new employers often seize their passports so that they cannot depart when they want, ultimately, denying them their freedom of movement.
They are made subject to excessive working hours, sleep deprivation and starvation. Many suffer from verbal or sexual abuse.
Underlining the need for the sustainable industrialization of Africa, the United Nations General Assembly on 25 July 2016 unanimously adopted a resolution proclaiming the period 2016-2025 as the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa.
Dignity factory workers producing shirts for overseas clients, in Accra, Ghana. Photo: Dominic Chavez/World Bank | Source: UN news Centre
By the terms of the resolution, which was adopted without a vote, the General Assembly called on the African Union (AU) Commission, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, the Economic Commission for Africa and, specifically, the UN Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), to develop, operationalize and lead the implementation of the programme for the Third Decade, in accordance with its mandate and through voluntary contributions.
Maasai pastoralists, who participate in a farmer field school, are selling animals at a local market in Narok, Kenya. Indigenous peoples have a key role to play in addressing climate change. Credit: FAO
Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples has relentlessly emphasised this new reality.
“Very few countries have so far made a clear commitment to a requirement in the Paris Climate Change Agreement that countries undertaking climate change activities should ensure the rights of indigenous peoples,” she says.
In the first six months of this year, 5,166 civilians were either killed or maimed in Afghanistan, a half-year record since counting began in 2009, a United Nations report published on 25 July 2016 shows.
At a press conference in Kabul, (left) Tadamichi Yamamoto, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and head of UNAMA, and (right) Danielle Bell, Director, Human Rights Unit, UNAMA, present latest report on civilian casualties. Photo: UNAMA/Fardin Waezi.
Between January and June this year, the human rights team of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) documented 1,601 civilian deaths and 3,565 injured civilians, an increase of four per cent in the total number of casualties compared to the first six months of 2015, according to the report, titled ‘Afghanistan Midyear Report 2016; Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict.’
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 