'Unseen' News and Views
(Beirut) – Qatari government clients and other major businesses are failing to pay contractors on time for projects, leaving migrant workers unpaid, Human Rights Watch on 14 December 2025 said.
(UN News)* — Humanitarian assistance in Gaza is being delayed because aid cargo is routinely deprioritised in favour of commercial goods, the UN’s aid coordination office (OCHA) warned on Monday [], as winter storms continue to worsen already dire living conditions for displaced families.
(UN News)* — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has strongly condemned the “heinous deadly attack” on Sunday against Jewish families gathered in Sydney, Australia, to celebrate Hanukkah.
Online violence is spilling offline: Four in ten of the women surveyed also reported experiencing offline attacks connected to digital abuse.
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Geneva – Online violence against women human rights defenders, activists and journalists has reached a tipping point, often fueling offline attacks, according to a new report released on , produced by UN Women’s ACT to End Violence against Women programme.
More than half the world’s population still lacks access to essential health services..And a quarter of them face financial hardship when paying for health care out of their own pockets, often at the expense of food, education or housing..
The Security Council in session. Credit: UN Photo/Evan Schneider
“I don’t think”, he declared, “anyone in his right mind will ever want that job”.
Fast forward to 2026.
As a financially stricken UN is looking for a new Secretary-General, who will take office beginning January 2027, the USG’s remark in a bygone era was a reflection of a disaster waiting to happen.
Statement by Maureen Magee, Global Director of Field Operations, at the Norwegian Refugee Council, commenting on the Global Humanitarian Overview (GHO) for 2026:
“2026 is set to stretch humanitarian responses to their limit as they seek to support people with the most severe needs around the world.
“Next year, 239 million people will be in need of humanitarian assistance and protection. Humanitarians are aiming to reach just over half of them.
10 December 2025 (OHCHR)* — Human rights are underfunded, undermined and under attack. And yet. Powerful. Undeterred. Mobilizing.
UN Photo/Mark Garten | Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, in an interview with UN News.
This year no doubt has been a difficult one. And one full of dangerous contradictions. Funding for human rights has been slashed, while anti-rights movements are increasingly well-funded.
Profits for the arms industry are soaring, while funding for humanitarian aid and grassroots civil society plummets.
Those defending rights and justice are attacked, sanctioned and hauled before courts, even as those ordering the commission of atrocity crimes continue to enjoy impunity.
The panelists at the CIVICUS press briefing on the 2025 People Power Under Attack Report. Credit: Oritro Karim/IPS
As authoritarian governments strengthen their hold and have even escalated the use of military force to suppress public dissent, civilians report facing increasing limitations of freedoms of association, peaceful assembly, petition and religion, as well as notable crackdowns on press freedoms.
New report finds that current international financial flows remain billions of dollars short of what is required to protect and conserve at least 30 percent of the world’s land and ocean by 2030. Photo: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 