Despite dire predictions of a European Union meltdown, the leaders’ summit this week appeared to succeed in delivering a compromise agreement on dealing with the troublesome migration issue.
Beneath the “everyone’s a winner” smiles, however, the upshot was undoubtedly a victory for Italy and other governments that have been pushing the EU to take a harder line on the question of refugees.
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel hailed a “European solution.”
30 June 2018 (UN Women)* — The time is now!At a historic time when women’s activism is galvanized around #Metoo, #TimesUp and other movements, around the world UN Women supports women politicians, lawmakers, farmers, small business owners, civil society activists and many others to claim their rights and to be heard.
The annual report report highlights some of the key results achieved in 2017–2018 in strengthening global norms and standards, increasing women’s leadership and political participation, enhancing economic empowerment, ending violence against women and girls, engaging women in all aspects of peace, security and humanitarian actions, and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting.
29 June 2108 (UN Environment)* — Over 100,000 metric tonnes of waste is generated every day in India. Landfills are being stretched to the limit, and the continuously mounting garbage is contaminating natural resources like soil and groundwater.
To help fix this vicious cycle of consumerism and waste disposal, 41-year old Shailaja Rangarajan – who is based in Bangalore, India’s third-largest city – is charting a new path towards conscious consumerism.
While waste management is usually seen as the process of segregating and recycling, she has gone a step further by promoting the “upcycling” waste.
29 June 2018 (UNHCR)* — Four generations of a Rohingya refugee family describe how statelessness has clouded their lives – and their hopes of returning to Myanmar.
Her eyes milky with age, 90-year-old Gul Zahar looks back on the lifetime of injustices that have stalked her family.
Back home in Myanmar, they lacked basic rights and freedoms. Gul first fled to Bangladesh in 1978, then again in 1991 and once more last August, when her village was torched in a deadly attack.
Now a great-grandmother, she lives in a one-room shelter in this Bangladesh refugee settlement with four generations of her extended family. “It’s been a lifetime of sorrow,” she says.
29 June 2018 — With new solutions proposed, and new partnerships established, the United Nations Secretary-General told delegates from Member States attending the first ever High-Level Conference on Counter-Terrorism, that he was committed to meeting the challenge of “keeping your citizens safe”.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe | UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
“We must fight terrorism together, with methods that do not compromise the rule of law and human rights,” said Antonio Guterres, speaking at the end of the two-day conference marking Counter-Terrorism Week, at UN Headquarters in New York.
The UN chief said that “we should engage with all who can help us achieve our goals”, including empowering young people through education, jobs and training, and engaging women and all of civil society in the fight against terrorism.
PRINCE WILLIAM, Duke of Cambridge, second in line to the British throne, visited Israel this week.
Uri Avnery
He seems a likable person. He looked like a prince should look, did all the right things, said all the right things, and even ate a watermelon with our mayor on the sandy shore of Tel Aviv.
If the British had not left Palestine 70 years ago, William would now be my prince, too. I remember having a day off from school on his great-grandfather’s birthday.
The British had obtained the League of Nations “mandate” over Palestine by posing as the protectors of Zionism (with the famous “Balfour Declaration). But they did not like us very much. The picturesque Arabs, gracious hosts by nature, attracted them much more strongly.
Reports of the indignities faced by people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory have “painted the bleakest picture yet” of the human rights situation there, a United Nations expert has said.
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UNRWA | A group of Palestinian children celebrating the launch of UNRWA’s Dignity is Priceless campaign.
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Special Rapporteur Michael Lynk was in Amman, Jordan, this week where he met with civil society and other representatives to gather information for his latest report, which will be presented to the General Assembly in October.
UN chief heads to Bangladesh to spotlight continuing perils facing Rohingya refugees
UNHCR/Roger Arnold | Rohingya families arrive at a UNHCR transit centre near the village of Anjuman Para, Cox’s Bazar, south-east Bangladesh after spending four days stranded at the Myanmar border. (file photo)
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29 June 2018 — The continuing plight of nearly one million Rohingya refugees driven from their homes in Myanmar will be the focus of the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres when he travels to Bangladesh this weekend – the country where they have found safe-haven.
NAYAPARA CAMP, COX’S BAZAR, Bangladesh, 29 June 2018 (UNFPA)* — The maternity centre in Nayapara Refugee camp was crowded with women and children Wednesday morning when an older woman burst into the facility with her pregnant daughter. Salima Khatum, 20, was in labour with her second child, and very close to giving birth..
Rondi Anderson, a UNFPA midwifery specialist, swung into action along with a team of paramedics and midwives. Ms. Khatum was cradled in her mother’s arms as the health workers gathered around, taking vital signs and listening to the fetal heartbeat.
No NGO rescue ship carrying migrants will be allowed to dock in an Italian port, the country’s interior minister Matteo Salvini has said, following a unanimous decision by EU leaders to review migration policy.
“NGO rescue ships will only see Italy on postcards,” the interior minister told Radio Capital on Friday [28 June 2018], reaffirming that Italy would not yield when it comes to migration.
Dubbed “the Sheriff” in the Italian press, Salvini insisted that whatever was decided during the EU summit would not alter the fact that Italian “ports will remain closed throughout the summer”to all NGO rescue ships that try to dock.
