'Unseen' News and Views
Part 1: “TMS HAS INTEGRITY”: Meet the man behind TRANSCEND Media Service
Part 2: Peace Journalism, a New Paradigm for Journalists Covering Conflict Situations
The Resolution also recognizes rural populations, workers and indigenous peoples’ contribution to sustainable development and biodiversity.
New York/Rome (FAO)* – FAO has hailed a landmark United Nations General Assembly resolution adopting the Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has confirmed the existence of at least two tunnels crossing the “Blue Line” – the border demarcation between Lebanon and Israel – but they “do not appear thus far” to have exit points leading to the surface on Israeli territory, the United Nations top peacekeeping official on 19 December 2018 told the Security Council.
Rights violations have continued unabated and unaddressed in Ukraine and people are still dying amid ongoing conflict between Government forces and armed separatists in the east of the country, a top UN rights official on 19 December 2018 said.
The UN Security Council Alone Has the Power to Impose Sanctions
According to the Charter of the United Nations, only the UN Security Council has a mandate by the international community to apply sanctions (Article 41) that must be complied with by all UN member states (Article 2,2). Therefore sanctions on Iran, unilaterally imposed by the United States government, are illegal.
They are a violation of the United Nations Charter. With amazing hubris and arrogance, the US government has imposed sanctions on various countries, including Iran.
In the case of Iran, these sanctions have caused the suffering of millions of innocent people, who are unable to buy medicines for serious illnesses, and whose financial security is threatened by the economic damage produced by US sanctions.
The United Nations General Assembly affirmed a non-legally binding Global Compact on Refugees on 17 December 2018, marking the latest move by Member States to support the rights of 258 million people on the move worldwide.
An overwhelming number of majority States, 181, voted in favor of adopting the compact, with the United States and Hungary opposing the move. The Dominican Republic, Eritrea and Libya abstained.
Berlin (IOM)* – Today (18/12/2018) IOM’s Missing Migrants Project (MMP) will publish records from hundreds of eyewitness reports of deaths during migration in Africa, bringing the total number of deaths recorded on the continent to 1,386 this year.
An estimated 6,615 deaths during migration reported in Africa in the last five years. Photo: IOM
United Nations* – Throughout human history, migration has been a courageous expression of the individual’s will to overcome adversity and to live a better life.
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Today, globalization, together with advances in communications and transportation, has greatly increased the number of people who have the desire and the capacity to move to other places.
This new era has created challenges and opportunities for societies throughout the world.
It also has served to underscore the clear linkage between migration and development, as well as the opportunities it provides for co-development, that is, the concerted improvement of economic and social conditions at both origin and destination.
Human migration is “a powerful driver of economic growth, dynamism and understanding,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said, in his message commemorating International Migrants Day, marked on 18 December.
The UN chief explained that migration allows millions to seek new opportunities that benefit communities of origin and destination alike. However, he pointed out “when poorly regulated, migration can intensify divisions within and between societies, expose people to exploitation and abuse, and undermine faith in government.”
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 