The families and friends of the victims, experience slow mental anguish, not knowing whether the victim is still alive and, if so, where he or she is being held, under what conditions, and in what state of health. PHOTO:OHCHR Mexcio
Enforced disappearance has frequently been used as a strategy to spread terror within the society.
The feeling of insecurity generated by this practice is not limited to the close relatives of the disappeared, but also affects their communities and society as a whole.
Enforced disappearance has become a global problem and is not restricted to a specific region of the world.
Once largely the product of military dictatorships, enforced disappearances can nowadays be perpetrated in complex situations of internal conflict, especially as a means of political repression of opponents.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 27 2025 (IPS)* ––Brazil, which stands out for exporting basic products such as iron ore, oil, coffee, and soybeans, rather than industrialized goods with higher added value, now intends to make a shift regarding rare earths, a key component in new technologies that it has in abundance.| En español
The turbines in a wind farm, like this one in the Northeast region of Brazil, contain magnets made from rare earths in their generators. This makes rare earths, which Brazil has in abundance, indispensable for both decarbonized electricity generation and the development of electric motors in the automotive sector and others. Credit: Fotos Públicas
Brazil is the second country in reserves of this natural resource, estimated at 21 million tons, surpassed only by China, with 44 million tons, explained Julio Nery, director of Mining Affairs at theBrazilian Mining Institute (Ibram).
Together, the two countries account for about two-thirds of the total.
(UN News)* — Humanitarians continue to push for more support for Sudan amid ongoing conflict, rising malnutrition and a cholera outbreak, a senior UN aid coordination official said on Thursday [] in New York.
Edem Wosornu, Director of Operations and Advocacy for the humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, briefed journalists on her recent visit to Sudan and neighbouring Chad – a critical entry point for aid and a haven for some 850,000 people who have fled fighting between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia.
The war erupted in April 2023 and she said it has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with some 30 million people needing assistance.
(UN News)* — State authority is crumbling across Haiti while gang violence engulfs the capital Port-au-Prince and beyond, “paralysing daily life and forcing families to flee,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council on Thursday [].
Six million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, while 1.3 million people – half of them children – having been forced to flee their homes, he added.
‘Shamefully overlooked’
Haiti now ranks among the five hunger hotspots worldwide that are of “highest concern,” said the UN chief.
Yet it remains the world’s least funded humanitarian appeal. Less than 10 per cent of the $908 million needed has been received.
IOM Calls for International Support as Yemen Faces Deadly Flooding.
IOM supports communities in Yemen with relief, shelter, and essential services during emergencies. Photo: IOM/Haithm Abdulbaqi
Aden, 28 August 2025 (IOM)* –Since early August, torrential rains and violent windstorms have devastated communities across Yemen, destroying homes, sweeping away livelihoods, and displacing thousands of families already living in precarious conditions.
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Aug 28 2025 (IPS)** –– On 7 August, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights delivered a groundbreaking decision that could transform women’s lives across the Americas.
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Credit: Corte IDH/Twitter
For the first time in international law, an international tribunal recognised care as an autonomous human right.
Advisory Opinion 31/25, issued in response to a request from Argentina, elevates care – long invisible and relegated to the private sphere – to the level of a universal enforceable entitlement.
BOCAS DEL TORO PROVINCE, Panama (UNFPA)* 29 August 2025 -– “We don’t have special care for women,” said Jakelyn Chiu, a single mother of three from the Bocas del Toro Province in Panama. “Here in the district, we don’t have a permanent gynaecologist. Women have to go to another province for care.”
Ms. Chiu had her first baby at age 17 and now works with UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, to empower adolescent girls and prevent unintended pregnancies in her community.
Across Latin America and the Caribbean, a girl becomes a mother every 20 seconds, according to a recent report by UNFPA.
(UN News)* — In the occupied West Bank village of Kufr Qaddum, *Yousef stands behind a sealed iron gate, cut off from the olive trees that have sustained his family for generations.
Like thousands of Palestinian farmers, he faces growing restrictions from Israeli forces and settlers, who have made the olive harvest season – running from September to November – a time of uncertainty and struggle.
(UN News)* — Amid reports of increased Israeli military operations across Gaza City on Friday [], UN aid agencies repeated urgent warnings of ongoing famine and a likely rise in preventable disease, linked to the dire living conditions in the war-shattered enclave.
“We are on a descent into a massive famine,” said Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, “and we need massive amounts of food getting into the Strip and safely distribute it across the Gaza Strip”.
Behind locked doors, thousands of migrants are trapped in modern slavery across Southeast Asia. Illustration: AI generated by CoPilot
Accra, Ghana, 29 August 2025 – When 32-year-old Samuel* left his hometown in Ghana, he carried more than a suitcase. He carried the weight of his family.
After graduating with a diploma in computer science, Samuel earned a modest income at an insurance company in Accra. But as the sole breadwinner for a family of eight after his father’s death, it was not enough.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 