'Unseen' News and Views
Cox’s Bazar, 31 May 2019 (IOM)* – Khair Hussein remembers when cooking a meal meant a back-breaking trek up a dirt slope to collect firewood from the nearby bush. He isn’t sure which was worse – the sweltering heat of the dry season, or the thick mud of the rainy season that made many paths impassable. As time went on, the bush receded and price of firewood from vendors doubled.
LPG is reducing demand for firewood in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps. Photo: IOM
ROME (FAO)* – The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) on 29 May 2019 launched the United Nations’ Decade of Family Farming and a Global Action Plan to boost support for family farmers, particularly those in developing countries.
Kicking off on Saturday [1 June 2019] the first-ever global Parenting Month, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, is calling on world leaders to invest in family-friendly policies that support parents to give their children “the best start in life”.
(Greenpeace)* — On May 1, the British House of Commons became the world’s first national parliament to declare a “climate emergency.” The motion is not binding and may have no effect on government policy, which appears reminiscent of the Paris emissions promises.
Night time road blocks at the Extinction Rebellion environmental activists camp at Marble Arch © Photo by Ollie Millington/Getty Images (Photo from Greenpeace).
After visiting Julian Assange in a London prison, an independent UN human rights expert expressed urgent concern on Friday [31 May 2019], for the Wikileaks co-founder’s well-being, accusing “a group of democratic States” of “ganging up” on the prisoner to “isolate, demonize and abuse” him and warned against extraditing the controversial publisher to the United States.
“My most urgent concern is that, in the United States, Mr. Assange would be exposed to a real risk of serious violations of his human rights, including his freedom of expression, his right to a fair trial and the prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” said Nils Melzer, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture, in a statement.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 