'Unseen' News and Views – By Baher Kamal & The Like
Children make up almost a third of all human trafficking victims worldwide, according to a recent report released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Additionally, women and girls comprise 71 per cent of human trafficking victims, the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons states.
Credit: UNODC
20 January 2017 – The United Nations and the countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have together crafted a blueprint for making the agriculture, food and nutritional security sectors more disaster-proof so the region can tackle hunger in a sustainable manner.
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Crops at the periurban agriculture cooperative Vivero Alamar, Cuba. Photo: FAO photo
“This transition cannot be achieved without the development of sectoral measures for disaster risk management involving technologies, productive practices and sustainable use of natural resources, as well as considerable changes in terms of governance, legislation, policies and public and private investment,” said Jorge Meza, chief forestry officer of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Hundreds of people were killed in South Sudan during an outbreak of violence last July and more than 200 people were raped, according to a United Nations report released on 16 January 2017, which emphasizes the need for accountability and justice for those human rights violations.
Children have been killed, raped and abducted in a series of recent attacks in South Sudan’s Unity State. Photo: UNICEF/Porter
The report by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the UN human rights office (OHCHR) found that throughout the fighting that occurred between 8 and 12 July 2016 between the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO), “the belligerents blatantly ignored international human rights law and humanitarian law.”
20 January 2017 – With conflict in South Sudan now entering its fourth year and its people facing dire humanitarian challenges, the United Nations refugee agency has revised upwards its funding requirements for 2017 to address new needs of those who have been displaced due to renewed fighting, increased violence and resulting food insecurity since July last year.
Internally displaced persons (IDPs) line up early in the morning for a general food distribution at the UN Protection of Civilians Site, Malakal, South Sudan. Photo: IOM/Bannon
20 January 2017 – As the extreme cold weather and storms continue to sweep Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, refugee and migrant children are threatened by respiratory and other serious illnesses, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund.
On 18 January 2017, in the Tabanovce refugee and migrant centre, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, a Syrian girl, carries a plastic cup filled with snow. Photo: UNICEF/Tomislav Georgiev
“Without proper shelter and warm clothing, young children are in real danger because of the severe weather,” said Basil Rodriques, UNICEF Regional Health Advisor for Central and Eastern Europe, in a news release.
More than 40 per cent of Syrian refugee children in Turkey are missing out on education, despite a sharp increase in enrolment rates, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on 19 January 2017 said.
A little Syrian girl outside her family tent in Nizip 1 refugee camp, Gaziantep, southern Turkey. Photo: UNICEF/UN048823/Ergen
“Unless more resources are provided, there is still a very real risk of a ‘lost generation’ of Syrian children, deprived of the skills they will one day need to rebuild their country,” said UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Justin Forsyth, speaking after a visit to southern Turkey.*
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 