Tokyo/Geneva, (ICRC)* – Speaking on 20 August 2018 at a meeting of parties to the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) in Tokyo, Japan, Dr Helen Durham, Head of Law and Policy for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), highlighted ICRC’s concerns with the growing gap between words and actions in the global trade of arms.
“The very purpose of the Treaty is to prioritize humanitarian interests and, in doing so, to reduce human suffering,” said Dr Durham, “Yet we are concerned by the growing gap between States’ absolute commitments to human rights and international humanitarian law – in the Treaty and elsewhere – and how arms are transferred in practice.”
UNICEF Child Alert report shows dangerous journeys and deportations intensify root causes of irregular migration
UNICEF/UN0217796/Bindra | Eliasa, 15, embraces his mother after they are finally reunited at the governmental reception shelter “Nuestras Raices” (“Our Roots” in English) in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala on May 3, 2018.
NEW YORK/PANAMA CITY (UNICEF)*– Extreme violence, poverty and lack of opportunity are not only powerful drivers of irregular child migration from northern Central America (El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras) and Mexico, but also consequences of deportations from Mexico and the United States – UNICEF on 16 August 2018 said in a new report.
SANLIURFA, Turkey, 17 August 2018 (UNFPA)* –“My husband was very strict,” Gemila*, a 28-year-old Syrian refugee, told UNFPA. “He wanted to crush people.”
Gemila had been married off, despite her protests, at age 17. A few years into her tumultuous marriage, the conflict in Syria forced their family to flee to Iraq.
Eventually, the couple decided to separate. Gemila’s husband promised to give her custody of their son in exchange for all of her savings – but then he disappeared with both.
Most of UNHCR’s staff are based in the field. Meet Eujin Byun, a communications officer in South Sudan, one of the world’s least safe countries for humanitarians.
Eujin Byun is from Korea and works as a UNHCR communications officer in South Sudan. In 2017, aid workers were the target of 46 major attacks in the country, including shootings, kidnappings and assaults.
Despite the risks, Eujin recently decided to extend her stay. Here she explains why.
For the last two years I have been working in South Sudan, one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a humanitarian worker.
Cox’s Bazar, 17 August 2018 (IOM)* – A major environmental project to provide around 250,000 families with liquid petroleum gas (LPG) stoves and gas cylinders has been launched by UN agencies and the government in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, to help prevent further deforestation linked to the Rohingya refugee crisis.
UN agencies and Bangladesh government launch alternative fuel project in Cox’s Bazar to help reduce deforestation linked to Rohingya crisis. Photos: Patrick Shepherd FAO/IOM
International Orangutan Day on 19 August coincides with the start of the International Primatological Society Congress in Nairobi, Kenya, and is a much-needed reminder that orangutans’ survival hangs in the balance.
16 August 2018 (UN Environment)* — There are three species of orangutan in the world and they are only found on two islands in Southeast Asia – Sumatra and Borneo. All three species are critically endangered.
Last year saw the amazing discovery of a new species, the Tapanuli orangutan. This is the eighth great ape species known to exist on Earth.
However, the Tapanuli orangutan faces extinction, threatened by plans to build a huge hydroelectric power dam in Batang Toru, North Sumatra.
19 August 2018 (Wall Street International)*— This is where things stood in 1994, when a Timemagazine cover shouted that the Tiger was “Doomed”, and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbit warned –“There may not be another chance to save Tigers”.
This new crisis galvanized the conservation community. It became clear that saving the tiger was not a battle to be won once and forever, but a continual process of holding old threats in check and preventing new ones from emerging as conditions change.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 