'Unseen' News and Views
Jhanmarco Flores Huamaní, a 13-year-old Quechua pond-maker in Peru’s Andean region of Ayacucho, who came to the Amazon region of his country for the first time, to take part in a youth meeting within the VIII Panamazonic Social Forum. Credit: Milagros Salazar/IPS
UN Photo/Martine Perret
“I am concerned about the unacceptably broad definition of terrorism and the use of Saudi Arabia’s 2014 counter-terrorism law and other national security provisions against human rights defenders, writers, bloggers, journalists and other peaceful critics,” Ben Emmerson, the Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism, said in a statement summing up his five-day mission.
The United Nations population agency on 5 May 2017 urged governments and development partners to expand midwifery programmes and promote an environment where midwives can effectively serve the needs of women and their families.
In Dinajpur, Bangladesh, Selina Akter, second year midwifery student, plays the role of a mother as students practice postnatal care at the Dinajpur nursing institute. Photo: Nicolas Axelrod/Ruom for UNFPA
5 May 2017 – Highlighting the complex link between food insecurity and migration – where increase in one forces the other to rise and then spirals back to push the former even higher – the United Nations food relief agency has urged greater investments in food security and livelihoods at places of origin to prevent displacement and reduce forced onward migration.
An elderly woman sits outside her makeshift dwelling in Afghanistan. Photo: WFP/Eoin Casey
In its new report, At the Root of Exodus: Food security, conflict and international migration, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) found that each 1 per cent increase in food insecurity pushed 1.9 per cent more people towards migration.
Baku Forum to promote sustainable development and human security through dialogue. Credit: UNESCO
The Fourth World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue (May 5 – 6) hosted by Azerbaijan under the theme ‘Advancing Intercultural Dialogue – New avenues for human security,peace and sustainable development’ examined effective responses to challenges facing human security, including massive migration, violent extremism and conflicts.
Nearly 75,000 refugees and migrants, including an estimated 24,600 children, currently stranded in Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary and the Western Balkans are at risk of psychosocial distress caused by living in a protracted state of limbo, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) on 4 May 2017 warned.
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An 8 year-old refugee from the Syria, in her family’s shelter in Pikpa Village, an open refugee camp run by volunteers outside of Mytilini, Lesvos, Greece. Photo: UNICEF/Gilbertson VII Photo
– The emerging drought-induced humanitarian crisis—prevailing in countries from Niger in West Africa to Somalia in East Africa—and conflict-driven famine conditions in South Sudan, Somalia, and Northeast Nigeria, have become a regular phenomenon.
“Young girls line up at a feeding centre in Mogadishu, #Somalia, where a severe drought is threatening famine.” Credit: UN instagram
Even though these food crises can be prevented, they persistently arise due to the development community’s collective amnesia on what has worked and what has not in famine response, recovery, and resilience-building.
In a “post-truth” world with “fake news” on the rise, and media accountability and credibility falling under question, free, independent and professional journalism has never been more important, the United Nations on 3 May 2017 said.
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Journalists wait for the arrival of official delegations at the Geneva II Conference on Syria, in Montreux, Switzerland. UN Photo/Violaine Martin
“We need leaders to defend a free media. This is crucial to counter prevailing misinformation. And we need everyone to stand for our right to truth,” Secretary-General António Guterres said in a message to mark World Press Freedom Day.
3 May 2017 – Survivors of sexual violence in war zones need to be recognized as legitimate victims of conflict and terrorism, and not blamed, stigmatized or shamed, the United Nations has said in an annual report to be presented to the Security Council.
A woman from the Kassab camp for Internal Displaced Persons (IDP), in Kutum, North Darfur, shows her sorrow for the increase of rapes in the area. Photo: UNAMID/Albert González Farran
“Shame and stigma are integral to the logic of sexual violence being employed as a tactic of war or terrorism: aggressors understand that this type of crime can turn victims into outcasts, thus unravelling the family and kinship ties that hold communities together,” according to the latest report of the Secretary-General on conflict-related sexual violence, which is prepared by the Office of the UN Special Representative on the issue.
Some 1.4 million children in Somalia are projected to be acutely malnourished this year, an increase of 50 per cent over last year, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) May 2 May 2017 announced.
A two year-old child cries for his mother at the Kismayo general hospital in Somalia. Born with a deformity, the child is also suffering from extreme malnourishment. Photo: IOM/Muse Mohammed
The figure includes more than 275,000 children who have or will suffer life-threatening severe acute malnutrition.
“The combination of drought, disease and displacement are deadly for children, and we need to do far more, and faster, to save lives,” Steven Lauwerier, UNICEF Somalia Representative.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 