(UN News)* — On Friday [28 June 2024], at the UN Human Rights Council’s (OHCHR) first panel for the annual full-day discussion on women’s rights, The UN human rights chief Volker Türk told a Human Rights Council panel that it’s time to eliminate laws and practices that contribute to “economic violence” against women and girls.
UN Women/Ryan Brown | Women attend a community meeting in Cameroon.
During his opening statement to the all-day panel dedicated to women and human rights, Mr. Türk said there had been “extraordinary progress” thanks to the worldwide women’s movement.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, 26 June 2024 (UNFPA)* -– “One of the biggest problems is insecurity – and the physical and sexual violence that comes with that,” explained Edrish Justilien, 36, a psychologist at the Petite Place Cazeau Hospital in Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince.
Dr. Justilien spoke to UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, about the alarming risks women and girls are grappling with amid the country’s ongoing humanitarian crisis. “Rape cases are what we are seeing most commonly, mostly [committed] by armed gangs.”
()* —Every month, nearly two billion women and girls menstruate, but during times of war and climate disasters, from the conflict in Gaza to the devastation caused by Cyclone Remal in Asia, UN humanitarian teams rush to serve affected communities, providing critical aid, which includes dignity kits.
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UNICEF/Prashanth Vishwanathan | A teacher in India leads an awareness class about menstrual and general hygiene to her students. (file)
What exactly is a dignity kit? On the heels of Menstrual Hygiene Day, marked annually on 28 May, here are five fast facts:
(UN News)* — Over and above the difficulty of actually getting into Gaza, aid teams now face the crushing realization that with a shortage of fuel and dwindling supplies, there is a limit to what they can do to help all those in need, UN aid worker Louise Wateridge told UN News on Friday [28 June 2024].
“You can hear bombardments from the north, the middle and the south… Gaza now really is hell on earth, It’s very hot… Trash is piling up everywhere, people living under plastic sheeting where temperatures soar,” said Ms. Wateridge, a Senior Communications Officer with the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, hours after returning to the shattered enclave since Hamas-led terror attacks and hostage-taking last October sparked the war.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 