'Unseen' News and Views
8 March 2021 (UN News)* — In Nigeria, where nearly three out of 10 Nigerian women have experienced physical violence by age 15, human rights lawyer Rashidat Mohammed fights for the rights of women, children and other vulnerable groups.
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Refugee Rosemary Kariuki has been recognized as Australia’s 2021 ‘Local Hero’ for her work helping other displaced women overcome isolation and gender violence.
Rosemary Kariuki, who came to Australia as a refugee from Kenya two decades ago, at her home in Western Sydney. © UNHCR/Brook Mitchell
UN Should Urgently Investigate Atrocities by All Parties
Priest on his way to church in Axum, Tigray region, Ethiopia on January 25, 2011. © 2011 Matjaz Krivic via Getty Images
(Nairobi) – Eritrean armed forces massacred scores of civilians, including children as young as 13, in the historic town of Axum in Ethiopia’s Tigray region in November 2020, Human Rights Watch on 5 March 2021 said. The United Nations should urgently establish an independent inquiry into war crimes and possible crimes against humanity in the region to pave the way for accountability, and Ethiopian authorities should grant it full and immediate access.
By Marlene Auer, Associate, Europe and Central Asia Division | Human Rights Watch*
Migrants Face Human Rights Abuses at EU Borders; Impunity Persists
Dawn was breaking when Akram and around 20 others dragged themselves up the banks of the Glina river, their bodies bruised from beatings by Croatian police officers. Some of them were barefoot and so badly injured they could barely walk.
Akram was back where he had started – Bosnia and Herzegovina – after being pushed back unlawfully from the borders of three European Union countries.
Image from Greenpeace International.
Our natural earth is dying. It is on the brink of collapse.
Just 15% of the world’s forests remain intact, and only 3% of the world’s oceans are free from human pressures.
Mainly due to human pressures, the planet is losing species – its biodiversity – at an alarming rate, thought to be comparable only to the 5th mass extinction 65 million years ago.
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Dear Greta,
I am an engineer, not a biologist. Yet, I realize wildlife and biodiversity are the Earth’s greatest treasures and need to be protected. In previous letters, I discussed large-scale 5G networks’ energy consumption and climate impacts. I proposed more sustainable alternatives to 5G public networks. Today, I will report how 5G threatens ecosystems and biodiversity.
In 2020, the world’s attention turned to the COVID-19 pandemic. But even as we poured all of energy and resources into tackling it, many pointed to wider issues as contributing factors. Nature and biodiversity loss. Climate change. Pollution and waste. The three planetary crises. All of which are destroying the natural world and threatening our future.
International Women’s Day this year comes at a difficult time for the world and for gender equality, but at a perfect moment to fight for transformative action and to salute women and young people for their relentless drive for gender equality and human rights. Our focus is on women’s leadership and on ramping up representation in all the areas where decisions are made – currently mainly by men – about the issues that affect women’s lives. The universal and catastrophic lack of representation of women’s interests has gone on too long. [Also available in: ar | es | fr | ru | zh]
International Women’s Day
5 March 2021 (ILO)* — An original song and music video for International Women’s Day, created by JONA OAK for the ILO and featuring a collective of artists and musicians from around the world.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 