World leaders’ failure to act has allowed the Myanmar security forces’ perpetrators of crimes against humanity to remain at large for a year after their murderous campaign against the Rohingya prompted an exodus of epic proportions, Amnesty International on said.*
More than 700,000 Rohingya women, men, and children fled from northern Rakhine State to neighbouring Bangladesh after 25 August 2017, when the Myanmar security forces launched a widespread as well as systematic assault on hundreds of Rohingya villages.
Budapest (Human Rights Watch)*– Hungarian authorities have stopped food distribution since early August 2018 to some rejected asylum seekers held in transit zones on the Hungarian-Serbian border, Human Rights Watch said on 22 August 2018. They should immediately ensure that all asylum seekers in custody are provided sufficient and appropriate food in line with the government’s legal obligations.
Despite serious military setbacks, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/Da’esh) may still have around 20,000 fighters and is continuing its dangerous transformation into a covert global network, while focusing on the activities of its regional offshoots, the United Nations Security Council was told.
These were among the key findings in a new United Nations report into the threats posed by ISIL presented to the UN Security Council on Thursday [23 August 2018] by senior UN counter-terrorism officials.
Human rights groups said authorities refused food to some asylum seekers in border camps, which open toward Serbia, while they await the outcome of their appeals.
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Migrants after crossing the border at Zakany, Hungary, October 16, 2015. | Photo: Reuters – From teleSUR.
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23 August 2018 (teleSUR)* – Hungary must provide food to rejected asylum seekers held in detention camps on its border while they appeal the decision, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said on Thursday [23 August 2018].
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The Helsinki Committee, a rights group, said in an August 17 statement it had asked the Strasbourg-based ECHR to intervene over what it described as “inhuman” treatment on the border.
ABS, Yemen, 23 August 2018 (UNHCR)* – Uprooted by war in Yemen, Mohammed Ali and his family found themselves stranded out under the elements. “When the first rains would pour … we had no plastic sheeting or anything. I swear to God that I used to hug my children and my wife and I would cry,” Mohammed recalls.
Hawai’i University researchers report the unexpected discovery that the most common plastics emit traces of methane and ethylene when exposed to sunlight.
24 August 2018 (UN Environment)* – Authors of a study conducted at Hawai’i University recently reported another good reason to redouble global efforts to beat plastic pollution: as plastics decay, they emit traces of methane and ethylene, two powerful greenhouse gases, and the rate of emission increases with time.
The emissions occur when plastic materials are exposed to ambient solar radiation, whether in water or in the air, but in air, emission rates are much higher.
Huge opportunities exist for youth across the entire agricultural value chain.
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Kigali, 22 August 2018 (FAO)*– Creating decent employment opportunities for youth in Africa’s agriculture sector can significantly reduce youth migration from the continent, FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva, said in his closing remarks at this week’s international youth conference held in Rwanda.
“We firmly believe that if you [the youth] are provided these opportunities, you will not leave the continent to look for opportunities elsewhere,” Graziano da Silva said.
Amid external uncertainty and volatility, the economies of Latin America and the Caribbean will grow by an average of 1.5 per cent this year, thanks to a rebound in private consumption and a slight increase in investment, according to a United Nations flagship report issued on Thursday 23 August 2018.
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UNIC Mexico | Mural inspired by the Sustainable Development Goals on the walls of Central de Abastos, the largest wholesale market in Latin America.
The 67th UN Department of Public Information (DPI)/Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Conference concluded on 23 August 2018, pledging to “uplift those whose human rights are most under threat and to protect our planet by living in harmony with nature.”
UN Photo/Loey Felipe | A young woman wears a shirt bearing the logo of the 67th DPI/NGO Conference at United Nations Headquarters in New York, 22 August 2018.
23 August 2018 – On this 20th anniversary of the International Day for Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition, the United Nations is inviting the world to reflect on the legacy of slavery and remember to guard against racial prejudices, which continue to fuel everyday discrimination against people of African descent.
UN Photo/Devra Berkowitz | Details from ‘Ark of Return,’ the permanent memorial in acknowledgement of the tragedy and in consideration of the legacy of slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 