4 September 2025 — In this Q&A, Human Rights Watch examines the application of the right to reparation to redress past and present harms stemming from colonial atrocities, including enslavement,[1]systemic racial inequalities, and other related human rights violations.
4 September 2025 — Rich countries have broken their climate finance promises to a key grouping of eight highly vulnerable African countries..
A group of shepherds and their livestock arrive in the community of Sincaro, in the Sanag region, Somalia, where Oxfam has built a water supply system for people and animals. Credit: Pablo Tosco/ Oxfam
Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda – collectively called the IGAD region – have together received, on average, $1.7 billion annually, between 2013 to 2022, in “grant equivalents”, being the true value of climate support after interest and debt repayments.
UNITED NATIONS, Sep 4 2025 (IPS)* –– 2025 has been marked by a significant escalation of the climate crisis and its effects on vulnerable populations, as the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) warns that average global temperatures could exceed the 1.5°C threshold within the next five years.
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A family prepares a banner to protest the effects of climate change on children outside their house in the village of Patzité, Quiché, Guatemala. Credit: UNICEF/Patricia Willocq
In Latin America and the Caribbean, rising temperatures and emissions continue to strain access to essential services and deepen poverty, particularly among children.
(UN News)* — Global education funding is facing sharp reductions that could leave an extra six million children out of school by 2026, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned on Wednesday [3 September 2025].
Official Development Assistance (ODA) for education is projected to fall by $3.2 billion – a 24 per cent drop from 2023 – with just three donor governments accounting for nearly 80 per cent of the cuts.
Such a decline would push the number of out-of-school children worldwide from 272 million to 278 million, UNICEF said – the equivalent of shutting every primary school in Germany and Italy combined.
“Every dollar cut from education is not just a budgetary decision, it’s a child’s future hanging in the balance,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
(UN News)* — Thousands of Palestinians have been caught in the crossfire while trying to escape attacks and dire food shortages in war-torn Gaza, with extraordinary challenges for some, according to latest reports from UN officials on the ground and the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
A 14-year-old girl with cerebral palsy who depends on a wheelchair was among crowds fleeing Israeli military aircraft operations east of Rafah in Gaza on 13 October 2023, said committee member Muhannad Salah Al-Azzeh, who presented a report on the occupied Palestinian territories on Wednesday [3 September 2025] in Geneva.
In the melee, she lost her wheelchair.
“She was crawling on the sand and asking her family, telling them ‘you can leave me here’ because she felt that she was slowing them down,” he said.
A group of shepherds and their livestock arrive in the community of Sincaro, in the Sanag region, Somalia, where Oxfam has built a water supply system for people and animals. Credit: Pablo Tosco/ Oxfam
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 