(UN News)* —Every day, almost one in five young women are married off while still children, according to the UN reproductive and sexual health agency, UNFPA, which is urging countries to say “I don’t” to child marriage, an illegal practice that is almost universally condemned and yet remains widespread globally.
“I was married at 14, and I lost my first child at 16 during pregnancy,” Ranu Chakma said. Child marriage is common in her village of Teknaf Upazila, on the southern coast of Bangladesh, even though it is illegal and a human rights violation.
Those violations occur even at a time when many countries are banning the illegal practice, most recently in Colombia, where a law came into effect earlier this month.
Here are five common misconceptions about child marriage:
The United Nations Development Programme says that while nine out of ten people are living in poverty and one in four jobless, Syria’s economy could restore its pre-conflict level within a decade with robust growth.
Photo: UNDP Syria
New York, 19 February 2025 (UNDP)* – Fourteen years of conflict in Syria have undone nearly four decades of economic, social, and human capital progress, according to a new United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) preliminary socio-economic impact assessment.
The report issues a stark warning: at current growth rates, Syria’s economy will not regain its pre-conflict GDP level before 2080.
20 February 2025 – The Trump administration has enacted new immigration policies at a dizzying pace, some of which obliterate programs built over decades to enable avenues to safety for people fleeing war and persecution.
The impact of these policies is felt directly by the asylum seekers, migrants, refugees, their families and communities. But the impact will also be far-reaching as the US sets an example that is likely to cause other countries to turn their backs on people fleeing for their lives.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 19 2025 (IPS)* – President Trump—whose rash and ill-conceived proposals continue unabated—has threatened to “seize Gaza,” turn it into a “Riviera of the Middle East,” and move Palestinians to Egypt and Jordan, two longstanding American allies who depend heavily on US support for their survival.
Children in Gaza stand on debris from a destroyed building. February 2025. Credit: UN News
The US President has also hinted that both countries would suffer either cutbacks or elimination of billions of dollars in economic and military aid —if they refuse to cooperate with him.
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)regrets to inform that we, for the first time in our history, will have to suspend ongoing and urgent US-funded humanitarian work in nearly 20 countries affected by wars, disasters, and displacement.
This will impact hundreds of thousands of people. These dramatic measures come in response to the stop, partial suspension, or lack of reimbursement of United States funding for our global humanitarian operations.
(Beirut) –Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon between October 2023 and December 2024 destroyed vast swathes of critical civilian infrastructure and public services, preventing tens of thousands of Lebanese from returning to their homes, Human Rights Watch said on 17 February 2025.
(UN News)* — As the UN and partners continue to deliver life-saving assistance across the Gaza Strip, the scale of needs remains overwhelming, requiring urgent and sustained support, UN aid coordination office OCHA said on Monday [].
OCHA cited Gaza’s Ministry of Health which stressed that oxygen supplies are critically needed to keep emergency, surgical and intensive care services running at hospitals, including Al Shifa and Al Rantisi hospitals in Gaza City.
(UN News)* —The UN human rights office, OHCHR, on condemned the intensifying Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank, warning that nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced already amid an “alarming wave” of violence and destruction.
Since the start of the offensive on 21 January, Israeli forces have killed at least 44 Palestinians, including five children and two women, in Jenin, Tulkarem and Tubas governorates, and four refugee camps in those areas, according to OHCHR.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 14 2025 (IPS)* – When some of the world’s “authoritarian and repressive regimes” were elected as members of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) –including Cuba, China, Russia, Kazakhstan and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) — a US Congressman Dana Rohrabacher infamously remarked:
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“The inmates have taken over the asylum, I don’t plan to give the lunatics any more American tax dollars to play with.”
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The UN General Assembly votes to suspend the rights of the membership of the Russian Federation in the Human Rights Council during an Emergency Special Session on Ukraine. April 2022. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elías
(UN News)* — The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed deep concern over the impact of US funding cuts on critical global health initiatives, warning they pose a direct threat to public health efforts worldwide.
In a media briefing on Tuesday [], WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus highlighted the consequences of funding suspensions, including disruptions to HIV treatment, setbacks in polio eradication and limited resources for responding to mpox epidemics in Africa.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 