'Unseen' News and Views
Presenting her latest annual report, Virginia Gamba, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, appealed for “bold and resolute action” to protect boys and girls at risk of death, recruitment, rape and other horrors.
Anti-racism protesters in Brooklyn, New York, demonstrate demanding justice for the killing of African American, George Floyd. Credit: UN News/Shirin Yaseen
During the three years since a white police officer brutally murdered Floyd, nationwide discussions of systemic racism have extended well beyond focusing on law enforcement to also assess a range of other government functions.
But such scrutiny comes to a halt at the water’s edge — stopping short of probing whether racism has been a factor in U.S. military interventions overseas.
(UN NEWS)* — An independent UN-appointed climate expert on Tuesday [] called for full legal protection to be given to those displaced by the impacts of climate change, to guarantee their human rights.
“In 2020 alone, 30.7 million people were displaced from their homes due to weather-related events. Droughts were the main factor,” Mr. Fry said in his latest thematic report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. “We must take immediate steps to give legal protection to these people.”
(UN NEWS)* — Violations of international law regarding children and armed conflict continued to have a “devastating impact”, the UN’s top official on the issue said on Tuesday [], with a 112 per cent rise in the number of attacks on schools and hospitals.
Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba unveiled the Secretary-General’s latest annual report, for 2022, which showed there were 27,180 grave violations overall, an increase from the previous year.
The recorded violations only refer to verified information, with the likely toll much higher, and cover four categories: recruitment and use of children into armed groups or forces, killing and maiming, rape and sexual violence, and abduction.
Eighty-one people have been confirmed dead, but roughly 500 more likely drowned when the ship sank, locked below decks.
Syrians and Iraqi refugees arrive at Skala Sykamias Lesvos Greece. Photo from Wikimedia Commons by Ggia on October 30, 2015.
If you have been reading European news outlets the past several days, you’ll have seen a number of lead stories on the horrific tragedy of a people-smuggling ship, crammed to the gills with migrants hoping to reach European shores from Tobruk, in eastern Libya, sinking off the coast of Greece.
By contrast, most U.S. news organizations have only paid sparing attention to the calamitous event, offering up just a tiny fraction of the coverage that they accord air disasters, or floods and earthquakes in wealthy countries.
© PAU BARRENA/AFP via Getty Images
At least 37 people died after around 2,000 Sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees attempted to cross from Morocco to Spain on 24 June 2022. At least 76 are still missing.
Authorities in Spain and Morocco have so far failed to conduct an effective independent investigation, leaving scores of grieving families in anguish.
Families Still Seeking Loved Ones ‘Disappeared’ Entering Spanish Enclave
.“Both Spain and Morocco have exonerated their security forces following flawed or insufficient investigations into the violence at the Melilla enclave border,” said Alice Autin, Europe and Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “And what happened to dozens of the people who attempted to cross on that day is still unknown.”.
MADRID, Jun 22 2023 (IPS)* – The abuse of human rights has sharply increased with the steady rise of the right and far-right parties in the wealthy industrialised countries, whose extremist ideology is now spreading faster than ever in Europe.
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Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s far-right Vox party. The party could soon be in government, after the 23 July 2023 general elections. Credit: Shutterstock
Indeed, most of the European Union 27 member countries are now either formally ruled by or strongly influenced and supported by extremists and populist parties, which publicly negate basic human rights, while masking their policies of suppressing public services like health, education, pensions, and protection of workers.
IOM’s Missing Migrants Project documented 441 migrant deaths in the Central Mediterranean in the first quarter of 2023. Photo: IOM 2022…
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HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 