Artwork by a victim of torture supported by the UN Torture Fund (Atelier peinture de Claire Harel, Association Mana, France)
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26 June 2020 (United Nations)* — Torture seeks to annihilate the victim’s personality and denies the inherent dignity of the human being. Despite the absolute prohibition of torture under international law, torture persist in all regions of the world.
Concerns about protecting national security and borders are increasingly used to allow torture and other forms of cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment. Its pervasive consequences often go beyond the isolated act on an individual; and can be transmitted through generations and lead to cycles of violence.
This month, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) released a brand-new animation to explain the increasingly popular concept of ecosystem-based adaptation (EbA).
25 June 2020 (UN Environment)* — Restoring and protecting nature is one of the greatest strategies for tackling climate change, but not just for the obvious reason that it sucks carbon out the air. Forests, wetlands, and other ecosystems act as buffers against extreme weather, protecting houses, crops, water supplies and vital infrastructure.
Heidegger’s philosophy has legitimised the far right’s regional environmentalism, populism and cultural racism.
Heidegger among other university rectors at a NSDAP election rally on 11 November 1933
23 June 2020 (openDemocracy)* — On 28 May 2020, Björn Höcke, the leader of Germany’s far-right party Alternative für Deutschland in the state of Thuringia published a glossy picture of himself on his Facebook profile.
On the photo, one can see him sitting on a park bench reading a magazine called Die Kehre (Magazine for the Protection of Nature) a new far-right magazine whose first issue was published in spring 2020.
SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 23 2020 (IPS)* – Over the course of his presidency, US President Donald Trump’s racism has become more evident with more leaks of his private remarks, which he has been generally quick to deny, qualify and explain away.
Despite his thinly disguised contempt for women, ‘non-white’ ethnic minorities, and most foreigners, unsurprisingly, he is respectful of power and privilege, especially when they may help him. Trump’s version of ‘kiss up, kick down’.
“Least racist person in the world”
Unsurprisingly, Trump has claimed he is the least racist person in the world. Unsurprisingly too, his record suggests otherwise.
Trump has frequently created controversies with racially charged comments and actions, and was even sued for racial discrimination by the US Justice Department in the 1970s.
Trump won the 2016 presidential election with an ethno-populist agenda featuring racist elements.
There are many reasons for opposing Netanyahu’s plan to annex settlements and the occupied Jordan Valley. I would like to focus on the implications of one of its important aspects: the intention to annex territories without granting citizenship to Palestinian residents, placing the discrimination between Jews and non-Jews on legal ground and providing ideological and legal justification for similar discrimination against Jews in other parts of the world.
Amos Gvirtz
Conversely, it can be claimed that Israel already discriminates against its Palestinian citizens. That is true. However, there are almost no apartheid-style discriminatory laws on Israel’s statute book.
Two important laws that sanction discrimination come to my mind in this context: the Law of Return that recognizes the Jewish right of return to Israel while failing to address the Palestinians’ right of return, is a clear example of a discriminatory law; and the new Nation-State Law, spawned by the Israeli right, that enshrines Jewish supremacy over the country’s Palestinian citizens and is part of a trend of openly discriminatory legislation.
Geneva (IOM)* – One of the most neglected protection issues in emergencies is human trafficking. Often viewed as a pre-existing problem and not as a direct consequence of conflict or natural disaster, trafficking remains largely unaddressed during emergencies.
Ethiopian girl at the TAS centre for unaccompanied children IOM/ Mohamed Muse
For traffickers around the world, each disaster signals a sudden availability of potential prey.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) works in close Partnership with governments and humanitarian partners to address all aspects of counter-trafficking responses – Prevention, Protection, and Prosecution.
(UN News)* — While warring parties agreed to more than 30 action plans, road maps, command orders and other measures to better protect children in 2019 – the highest number in any one year – rape and other forms of sexual violence remain vastly under-reported, including against boys, the leading UN advocate on the issue told the Security Council on 23 June 2020.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe | Virginia Gamba, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict (file)
Virginia Gamba, the UN Special Representative on Children and Armed Conflict, blamed “the fear of stigma and retaliation, involvement of powerful perpetrators and lack of services for survivors”, all of which discourage children and their families from reporting violations and seeking justice. Over 730 cases of sexual violence were verified during last year.
(UN News)* — Inclusive education should be a “non-negotiable” right for all children, the head of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said in a new report launched on 23 June 2020.
Released at the start of what is being heralded as a “decade of action” for education, as the world grapples with the COVID-19 crisis, the 2020 Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report illuminates how countries are putting diversity at the core of their education systems, with varying degrees of success.
“It has never been more crucial to make education a universal right, and a reality for all”, UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay said in the report’s foreword.
23 June 2020 (WMO)* — The World Meteorological Organization is seeking to verify a reported new record temperature north of the Arctic Circle of 38° Celsius. This was on 20 June in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk amid a prolonged Siberian heatwave and increase in wildfire activity.
Verkhoyansk, located in the northern part of Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), is in a region of Eastern Siberia which has an extreme very harsh dry continental climate (very cold winter and hot summer).
(IWGIA)*— On 29 May an estimated 20,000 tons of diesel fuel leaked into the soil and natural water system near the city of Norilsk in northern Siberia after a fuel storage tank belonging to a daughter company of Russian nickel and copper giant Nornickel collapsed. A few days later, on 3 June, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the incident a federal scale disaster.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 