Archive for February, 2019

07/02/2019

Nearly Two-Thirds of Children Lack Access to Welfare Safety Net, Risking ‘Vicious Cycle of Poverty’

More than six in 10 children globally lack access to social protection, leaving them particularly vulnerable to falling into chronic poverty, the UN said on Wednesday [6 February 2019], warning also that some governments are cutting State cash entitlements, amid continuing economic uncertainty.

Photo: UNICEF/Wathiq Khuzaie | A joint ILO-UNICEF report is urging action to ensure that social protection reaches all children, like 6-year-old Mustafa who works with his father in an industrial area of Baghdad, and protects them from poverty and deprivation.

In a joint report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), data shows that although a welfare safety net exists for 35 per cent of youngsters overall, that figure drops to 28 per cent in Asia and just 16 per cent in Africa.

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07/02/2019

Afghanistan: Number of Casualties from Landmines, Other Explosives Has more than Tripled since 2012 – Children Make Up 8 in 10

The number of casualties in Afghanistan from landmines and other explosives has more than tripled since 2012, the UN said on Wednesday [6 February 2019], in support of a call to provide more long-term support for survivors.

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UNMAS/Cengiz Yar | An explosives specialist conducts mine clearance operations after detecting a piece of metal in the mountains near Kabul, Afghanistan.
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Latest data from UNMAS, the UN Mine Action Service, shows that 1,415 Afghan civilians were killed or injured by mines and so-called explosive remnants of war (ERW) in 2018.
06/02/2019

Female Genital Mutilation Is ‘an Abhorrent Human Rights Violation’ Still Affecting Million of Women and Girls around the Globe – UN Chief

Female genital mutilation, is “an abhorrent human rights violation” still affecting women and girls around the globe, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated in his message for the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM, marked on Wednesday [6 February 2019].

UNFPA/Georgina Goodwin | Female Genital Mutilation practitioner with her 10-year-old granddaughter in Diaami, Hargeisa in Somaliland. The young girl was supposed to have been cut already but she is sick with an infection so her grandmother is waiting.

“It denies them their dignity, endangers their health and causes needless pain and suffering, even death”, the UN chief added.

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06/02/2019

Piracy and High Seas Crime Growing and Becoming More Sophisticated, Posing ‘Immediate Danger’ to People’s Lives and Safety’ – UN Office on Drugs and Crime

Human Wrongs Watch

International maritime crime is becoming “increasingly sophisticated” as criminal groups exploit jurisdiction and enforcement challenges on the high seas and pose “immediate danger to people’s lives and safety”, the UN anti-drugs and crime chief warned the Security Council on Tuesday [5 February 2019].*

Eunavfor | The issue of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea was raised by several speakers during the Security Council’s debate on transnational maritime crime. | Photo from UN News

“Two-thirds of the world’s surface is ocean. Nearly all of that is beyond any State’s territorial waters and largely not subject to a single state criminal jurisdiction,” Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said as he briefed the Council’s first-ever debate targeting the global challenge of transnational maritime crime.

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06/02/2019

‘Online Violence, Cyber-Bullying and Digital Harassment Affect over 70% of Young People Globally’ – UNICEF on Safer Internet Day

© UNICEF/UN0140097/Humphries | A student at the Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Subang Jaya school, studies at home home in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The number of active internet users in Malaysia has exceeded 20.1 million, with 16.8 million being active on social media.

“We’ve heard from children and young people from around the globe and what they are saying is clear: the Internet has become a kindness desert,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore on Safer Internet Day.

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05/02/2019

Indian Architect Turns to Bees and Terracotta to Design Innovative Cooling System

Human Wrongs Watch

4 February 2019 (UN Environment)*Monish Siripurapu’s air cooling system may be based on the design of a beehive but the Indian innovator’s inspiration did not come while he was striding through fields of flowers. He was actually in a stifling hot factory in New Delhi, where he was doing some design work.

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Photo by Monish Siripurapu/Ant Studio | Photo from UN Environment.
05/02/2019

This Video Will Change How You See Food

Human Wrongs Watch

5 February 2019 (FAO)*A third of all food produced is lost or wasted each year, but just a quarter of what we waste is enough to end world hunger.

Zero Hunger starts with you. Watch the video to find out more.

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https://youtu.be/7SqLz4O32vc

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05/02/2019

World’s Biggest Refugee Settlement Gets Biggest Ever Waste Facility

Human Wrongs Watch

This is a summary of what was said by UNHCR spokesperson Andrej Mahecic to whom quoted text may be attributed at today’s press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. |  Español   |  Français

The biggest-ever waste treatment plant in a refugee camp in Bangladesh.

The human waste treatment facility under construction at the refugee settlement near Kutupalong, Bangladesh.  © UNHCR/Firas Al-Khateeb

By the UN Refugee Agency (UNHR)* —  UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and Oxfam have together put into service this week in Cox’s Bazar the biggest human waste treatment facility ever built in a refugee settlement.

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05/02/2019

In a World of Corporate-Backed Politicians, Beware the Sounds of Sirens

Human Wrongs Watch

By Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service*

“Citizens of the democratic societies should undertake a course of intellectual self-defense to protect themselves from manipulation and control, and to lay the basis for more meaningful democracy.”  — Noam Chomsky, 1989 (Necessary Illusions: Thought Control in Democratic Societies)

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Odysseus is tempted by the swirling Sirens in Homer’s The Odyssey.

My copy of Homer’s The Odyssey, a remnant of high school Latin days, has been gathering dust on a shelf for decades now.

But I’ve been thinking more about the book in recent years, especially as my writing has increasingly turned to the psychology of propaganda.

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05/02/2019

Meanwhile, around the World

Human Wrongs Watch

By Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service*

Syria calls on our full attention, for a fresh look.  Looking at what? The “reality of Syria”, the “real Syria”, and then seeing what?

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Johan Galtung

The Germans make an apparently useful distinction between reality für mich, as I, ich, see it, and, an sich, reality in, by, for itself, reality as such.  Objective, not subjective.

A useful distinction; making us ponder, how different are they?

Apparently useful; how do we get to, at this an sich thing?

Old questions; maybe no new answers, but worth pondering.

To the West, Syria spells colonial history–by the West since 1916 more than by the Ottomans since 1516–and post-colonial history.  Why?

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