Aden, 23 November 2023 (IOM)* – Navigating their journey against the backdrop of Yemen’s ninth year of conflict, migrants face unprecedented challenges. In this fragile environment, over 93,000 individualsarrived in Yemen between January and October 2023.
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Samara tenderly holds her newborn, a symbol of hope amid the multitude of challenges she has faced throughout her migration journey. Photo: IOM/Rami Ibrahim 2023
Among them, optimistic souls like Samara seek opportunities in the Gulf, unaware of the perils that lie ahead. Compounded by limited access to essential services, their vulnerability to abuses, including gender-based violence and exploitation, is exacerbated.
As a young girl growing up in Ethiopia, Samara*’s life took a harrowing turn when her parents got divorced. Samara and her sister were placed under the care of their father and abusive stepmother after her mother moved to another village.
22 November 2023 — In the Central Mediterranean Sea, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is witnessing appalling levels of human suffering. MSF has been running search and rescue (SAR) activities since 2015 as a direct response to European Union (EU) policies of disengagement and non-assistance along this stretch of the sea.
A Ugandan woman who has a physical disability is learning how to fight for her and other women’s rights after suffering a life “full of pain”, thanks to a UN-supported programme.
UN Women | Angela Muhindo in Kasese, western Uganda.
“My life has been full of pain,” she said, surveying the green landscape where she spent her childhood in Kasese, in Uganda’s western region. “In my community, women have less power, but if you are disabled, you are even more vulnerable to exploitation.”
Ms. Muhindo, who has had a physical disability since childhood, said she has faced violence and exclusion throughout her life.
NAIROBI, Nov 22 2023 (IPS)* – In a groundbreaking development, indigenous farmer communities are poised to bring the spotlight onto food systems at the upcoming UN Climate Conference (COP28) in Dubai.
Christine Nalienya, a farmer in western Kenya, winnowing beans outside her home. Bean farmers confront various challenges, yet as smallholder farmers, they receive little support. Credit: Robert Kibet/IPS
Recent research revealing that food systems contribute to roughly one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions has spurred a compelling call to action.
Furthermore, as one-third of the world’s food goes to waste, an alarming over 700 million people grapple with hunger. At the same time, a staggering 3 billion individuals cannot access a nutritious diet.
OXFORD, England, Nov 24 2023 (IPS)* – The impacts of climate change on human mobility have yet to be fully understood and addressed on a global scale, even though some 3.3 to 3.6 billion people are highly vulnerable to climate change.
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Climate migrants tend to move to cities in their own countries where they often end up in urban slums characterized by sub-standard housing. Credit: Donatas Dabravolskas/Shutterstock
Contrary to popular perceptions, most climate migrants move internally to cities within their own countries, attracted by the perceived employment, education, and healthcare opportunities that urban areas offer.
Elected by the agency’s global board of directors on November 14th, journalist and writer Fernando Morais assumed the mission of elevating IPS – Inter Press Service – to face the current challenges and perspectives in which the BRICS expand, the Global South emerges and the Internet revolutionizes communication around the world
President of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (left), alongside Carlos Tibúrcio and Fernando Morais, Chair of the IPS Board of Directors (right). Credit: Planalto.
BRASILIA, Nov 21 2023 (IPS)* – During an official audience at the Planalto Palace, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva met on Monday 20 November with writer and journalist Fernando Morais, the first Brazilian to assume the role of Chair at IPS (Inter Press Service), one of the international news agencies most committed to democratic communication with developing countries and with civil society at a global level.
UNITED NATIONS, Nov 21 2023 (IPS)* – Jeanne Kirkpatrick, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, once made the distinction between “friendly” right-wing authoritarian regimes (which were mostly U.S. and Western allies) and “unfriendly” left-wing totalitarian dictatorships (which the U.S. abhorred).
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Among the “dictators” the U.S. shunned in the 1970s and 80s were Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe, Myanmar’s General Than Shwe, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Cuba’s Fidel Castro, Libya’s Mummar al-Qaddafi, Syria’s Hafez al-Assad and North Korea’s Kim IL-Sung.
At the same time, successive U.S. administrations cozied up to a rash of right-wing authoritarian regimes and family-run fiefdoms, mostly in South-East Asia, Latin America and particularly the Middle East.
Geneva, 15 November 2023 (WMO)* — The abundance of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere once again reached a new record last year and there is no end in sight to the rising trend, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Global averaged concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most important greenhouse gas, in 2022 were a full 50% above the pre-industrial era for the first time. They continued to grow in 2023.
The rate of growth in CO2 concentrations was slightly lower than the previous year and the average for the decade, according to WMO’s Greenhouse Gas Bulletin.
15 November 2023 (UNHCR)* — The climate crisis and human displacement are increasingly interconnected. Not only did climate-related disasters trigger more than half of new reported displacements in 2022, but nearly 60 per cent of refugees and internally displaced people now live in countries that are among the most vulnerable to climate change. Also available in: Español
Our understanding of these links is growing, but the ways in which our rapidly changing climate is forcing people to move and making life harder for those already displaced are complex and evolving. This has allowed myths and disinformation to abound.
Here are five of the most common myths associated with the climate crisis and displacement, followed by what we know.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 