AL BAB, Northwest Syria, 23 February 2021 (UNFPA)* – Bana, 12, was able to escape her hometown, the city of Aleppo, before the Syrian conflict engulfed her neighbourhood. It was the first of two times she and her family would have to flee violence before settling down here, in Al Bab, northwest Syria. And then the pandemic struck.
Bana, 12, enjoys learning about robotics at a women’s and girls’ safe space in northwest Syria. Image courtesy of Ihsan Relief and Development
“Like all girls in Syria, I live a difficult childhood,” she told facilitators at the women’s and girls’ safe space where she receives support and services. She is a dedicated student, but since the outbreak of COVID-19, her school has often been closed.
“When I can attend school, I behave politely and work hard,” she described.
(UN News)* — Independent UN human rights experts castigated Malaysia on Wednesday [24 February 2021] over its decision to deport more than1,000 detained migrants back to crisis-ridden Myanmar – despite a court order to suspend their return, pending a judicial review.
Unsplash/Alex Hudson | A food market in Kelantan, Malaysia.
Malaysian immigration authorities returned 1,086 migrants, including unaccompanied minors and toddlers as young as three, the UN experts said in a statement on Wednesday.
In defiance of the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s order, the Malaysian authorities “breached the principle of non-refoulement, a rule of jus cogens, which absolutely prohibits the collective deportation of migrants without an objective risk assessment being conducted in each individual case”, they said.
(UN News)* — More collective action is needed to address the risks climate change poses to global peace and security, the UN Secretary-General told a high-level Security Council debate on Tuesday [23 February 2021], as renowned natural historian David Attenborough warned countries that the planet faces total ‘collapse’.
CIFOR/Axel Fassio | Young girls carry water from a source near Yangambi, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
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Climate shocks such as record high temperatures and a “new normal” of wildfires, floods and droughts, are not only damaging the natural environment, said UN chief António Guterres, but also threatening political, economic and social stability.“The science is clear: we need to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 degrees by the end of the century,” the Secretary-General said.
WFP/Oscar Duarte, women cooking free meals for the children of the community named Guililandia, who were affected by the Hurricane. Part of the rice she has served to the children was WFP rice.
24 February 2021 (UN News)* — The United Nations International Labour Organization (ILO) has called on the military in Myanmar to end harassment and intimidation of workers, and ensure that they can exercise their rights to freedom of expression, in a climate free of violence and fear.
Unsplash/Alexander Schimmeck | The street leading to the Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon, Myanmar. (file photo)
In a statement on Tuesday [23 February 2021], the agency said it received allegations that police and military are conducting door to door searches for trade unionists at their dormitories and hostels in the Hlaingtharyar industrial township, in the country’s largest city, Yangon.
It is alleged that the acts of harassment and intimidation “largely targeted” young female workers working in the private sector industries of Yangon, who are living far away from their families in the rural areas, ILO said.
GENEVA, (OHCHR)* – UN experts* on 23 February 2021said the US Administration’s review of how to close the Guantanamo Bay detention centre should also address ongoing violations of human rights being committed against the 40 remaining detainees, including torture and other ill- treatment.
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Unsplash/Hédi Benyounes | Barbed wire fencing surrounds a detention centre.
“We welcome the goal of closing the detention facility, consistent with our previous calls to end impunity for the human rights and humanitarian law violations committed during the ‘war on terror’. As the 20thanniversary of 9/11 looms, we urge a transparent, comprehensive, and accountability-focused review of the operation and legacy of the prison and the military commissions,” the experts said.
US President Joe Biden announced this month that his Administration would study how it could shut down Guantanamo, as was first promised by former president Barack Obama.
As the climate warms, a destructive pest is spreading its wings and damaging the livelihoods of fruit growers in southern Africa. The invasive fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis, is preventing farmers like Susan Zinoro, a mango farmer from Mutoko, Zimbabwe, from literally and figuratively enjoying the fruits of their labour.
Mango farmers Susan and Batsirai Zinoro from Mutoko District, Zimbabwe are using Integrated Pest Management methods to control a fruit fly pest. Credit: Busani Bafana/IPS
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Feb 23 2021 (IPS)* – Every harvest season, Susan Zinoro, a mango farmer from Mutoko, Zimbabwe, buries half the mangoes she’s grown that season. They have already started rotting either on the tree or have fallen to the ground before harvest. It’s a difficult task for Zinoro because she knows she is throwing away food and income meant for her family.
Implementation of nature-based solutions has been growing. But there is an urgent need to gather more evidence on the outcomes of adaption projects worldwide. As temperatures rise and climate change impacts intensify, nations must urgently step up action to adapt to the new climate reality or face serious costs, damages and losses, the 2020 edition of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Adaptation Gap Report finds.*
(UNEP)* — Implementation of nature-based solutions has been growing worldwide for the past two decades. Since 2006, multilateral funds serving the Paris Agreement have backed around 400 adaptation projects in developing countries, half of which started after 2015. The majority focus on agriculture and water, with drought, rainfall variability, flooding and coastal impacts.
23 February 2021 (UN News)* — People living in low-income countries are at least four times more likely to be displaced by extreme weather compared to people in rich countries, despite being the least responsible for climate change, that’s according to the UN’s humanitarian office, OCHA.
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IRIN/Jacob Zocherman | The most vulnerable people in the world, like these displaced persons in South Sudan, are more likely to suffer from the effects of climate change.
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The UN is warning that much more needs to be done to anticipate, and plan for, the extreme weather events that put millions in need of urgent assistance.
(UN News)* — During this time of “crisis and fragility”, the UN chief told the United Nations Environment Assembly on 22 February 2021 that human well-being and prosperity can be vastly improved by prioritizing nature-based solutions.
CIFOR/Tri Saputro | A farmer harvests rice in Bantaeng, Indonesia.
Painting a picture of the turmoil wreaked by COVID-19, whereby millions are being pushed into poverty, inequalities are growing among people and countries, and “a triple environmental emergency” of climate disruption, biodiversity decline and a pollution epidemic that is “cutting short some nine million lives a year”, UN Secretary-General António Guterres upheld in his video message that now is “a critical year to reset our relationship with nature.”
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 