'Unseen' News and Views
Despite a myriad of “long-neglected social, economic and development needs”, the Head of the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) on 8 August 2018 said progress had been made towards recovery and stability in the battle-scarred country, and called for Iraqi political leaders to continue to “work for national reconciliation” through “inclusive” solutions.
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It’s essential that Nagasaki’s devastation should “not be forgotten” now or in the future, if the threat of nuclear war is to be lifted, said the Director of the Japanese city’s Atomic Bomb Museum, ahead of a visit there on 9 August by the UN Secretary-General.
She has twice been President of Chile, and on 8 August 2018, ground-breaking politician and women’s rights champion, Michelle Bachelet was nominated by the United Nations chief António Guterres for the key post of High Commissioner for Human Rights.
ROME, 8 August 2018 (FAO)* – FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva has urged countries to unite behind a campaign to promote indigenous women’s rights and encourage their participation in policy discussions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger.
The Violet chair initiative is a call to give indigenous women a seat at the table.
A firefighter retrieves supplies while battling the Ranch Fire, part of the Mendocino Complex Fire, California. Several thousand people were evacuated as fires swept across the state. © NOAH BERGER/AFP/Getty Images
Facing up to the reality of climate change will be cold solace to those who have lost loved ones in a tragic few weeks of multiple extreme weather disasters, but we also acknowledge the urgency of action to protect our communities from further harm.
By Flavia Faria in Boa Vista Brazil and Nadia Williamson in La Guajira, Colombia*
With medicine and food scarce at home, indigenous Warao and Wayúu peoples are abandoning their lands to seek refuge in Brazil and Colombia.
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A Venezuelan indigenous woman and child staying at a shelter in Pacaraima, Brazil. © UNHCR/Reynesson Damasceno
7 August 2018 – As conflicts and natural disasters have sharply deteriorated living conditions in the Horn of Africa and Yemen, more and more people have been crossing the Gulf of Aden in both directions, leading the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to appeal for $45 million to provide critical aid to 81,000 people over three years.
In the first of a series of articles to mark International Youth Day on 12 August, ILO focuses on an its funded project that has been supporting efforts to curb urban violence and restore peace in the coastal town of Diégo Suarez.
Photo from ILO News.
DIEGO-SUAREZ (ILO)* – Located in northern Madagascar, the town of Diégo-Suarez has many tourist assets, thanks to its extraordinary setting, its beaches and old colonial buildings that lend it a special charm. But a few years ago, the city was confronted by organized gangs known as foroches, or “wild ones,” who created conditions of insecurity and threatened to undermine the tourist industry.
Helping farmers helps peace – New FAO Framework to bolster focus on food security and food systems to help sustain peace
ROME, 7 August 2018 (FAO)* – Civil wars and conflicts have increased markedly in the past decade, leading to the recent reverse of a steady trend towards reducing hunger.
They take their heaviest toll on rural communities engaged in agriculture. Wheat output in Syria has fallen by 40 percent and processed-food output in Iraq suffered a double-digit decline.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 