With some 60 million people affected by extreme weather in 2018, according to a new study, the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) called for better management of the issue worldwide, in a statement published on Thursday [24 January 2019].
Discrimination of women is common in all societies – rich western countries or poorer countries of Asia, Africa or Latin America. The level of discrimination of course varies – it can be subtle in the former countries and more pronounced in the latter.
Ravi P Bhatia
Even most religions discriminate against women in some areas or the other. A Church normally would have male pastors or bishops and the Sunday service is generally carried out by men.
Similarly, women feel the brunt of discrimination in other major religions — Islam, Hinduism.
There is a very cruel practice that women face – divorce in the form of what is called triple talaq in several Islamic countries including India.
23 January 2019 – In Ukraine, extreme winter cold is making life harder for thousands of people whose lives have already been torn apart by conflict. Hoping to find safer places to live, families in the region have had to endure a battle for survival, in buildings without heat or electricity.
Since 2014, conflict in Ukraine has forced 1.5 million people to flee their homes, according to the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR..After five years, many of the displaced are often forced to choose between buying food and medicine or paying for heating.
23 January 2019 — Against the backdrop of seemingly endless challenges across the world, United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told a conference of development-minded partners in Nigeria that “no country, no region” could tackle them alone.
IRIN/Kate Holt | A young girl in Kaduna state, Nigeria, carries water from a river known to be infested with flies that cause river blindness.
“In the regions today, no country is alone. Our borders don’t make any difference in the Sahel when we talk about issues of terrorism, migration, and climate change”, Ms. Mohammed said on Tuesday at the opening of the Kaduna State Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Acceleration Conference 2019.
Davos, Switzerland, 23 January 2019 (World Economic Forum)* –While food security is a global issue, its impacts are all too often hidden. Aiming to address global demand for food, we have created highly complex supply chains that are not transparent and difficult to trace end-to-end.
From food fraud to food-borne illness and food loss caused by inefficiencies in the supply chain, lack of production and supply chain visibility affects us all, and it is often the vulnerable and invisible in our society who are the first to suffer.
The emotional and physical pain brought on by bullying can be excruciating, yet this behavior continues to abound in schools globally, according to a new report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) that is calling for all children to have access to a “safe, inclusive” learning environment.
UNICEF/Adriana Zehbrauskas | Pictured here are three girls in Progreso, Yoro, Honduras, ages 13 to 14, who are friends and victims of harassment at their school, for the purpose of sex trafficking. The person behind it is a 15 year-old student that works with a network that co-opts young girls against their will to work as prostitutes.
Our economy is broken. Hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty while huge rewards go to those at the very top. There are more billionaires than ever before, and their fortunes have grown to record levels. Meanwhile, the world’s poorest got even poorer.
Pratima lost her twin babies through delays and poor treatment after she gave birth at her local government clinic. In India, the highest -quality medical care is only available to those who have the money to pay for it. Photo: Atul Loke, Panos/Oxfam
Many governments are fueling this inequality crisis. They are under taxing corporations and wealthy individuals, yet underfunding vital public services like healthcare and education.
Unprecedented innovations in the world of work provide “countless opportunities” but unless they are embraced through action, inequality and uncertainty will only widen in the workplace, according to a landmark new International Labour Organization (ILO) report released on Tuesday [22 January 2019].
@ ILO/A. Mirza | Workers of PT Toshiba Consumer Products Ind. assembling and manufacturing of electronic goods, such as television sets. Cikarang, Bekasi. Indonesia. (file)
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“Countless opportunities lie ahead to improve the quality of working lives, expand choice, close the gender gap, (and) reverse the damages wreaked by global inequality”, the Global Commission on the Future of Work report stresses.
The possibility of establishing a “viable, contiguous Palestinian state” has been “systematically eroded by facts on the ground,” Nickolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, briefed the Security Council on Tuesday [22 January 2019], ahead of the quarterly open debate on the Middle East (Israel/Palestine).
UN Photo/Loey Felipe | Nickolay Mladenov (on screen), UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and Personal Representative of the Secretary-General to the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority, briefs the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question. 22 January 2019.
22 January 2019 – A worsening fuel crisis in the Gaza Strip enclave is putting patients’ lives at risk with power supplies for operating theaters under constant threat, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said.
UNICEF/Eyad El Baba | Teenage girl in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, kneels beside her mother and brothers’ graves.
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“Acute fuel shortages are rapidly exhausting the last coping capacities of the health system in Gaza, which is struggling with chronic shortages of pharmaceuticals, medical supplies and electricity”, said Gerald Rockenschaub, Head of the WHO Office for the West Bank and Gaza.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 