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.
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.
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.
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
Online violence, cyber-bullying and digital harassment affect over 70 per cent of young people globally, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Tuesday[5 February 2019], calling for concerted action to tackle and prevent this form of violence.
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.
Photo by Monish Siripurapu/Ant Studio | Photo from UN Environment.
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
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.
“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)
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.
Syria calls on our full attention, for a fresh look. Looking at what? The “reality of Syria”, the “real Syria”, and then seeing what?
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?
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 