Archive for ‘Asia’

04/10/2024

Armed Conflicts Put Children at an Increased Risk of ‘Grave Violations’ and of Being Trafficked

Human Wrongs Watch

Armed conflict puts children at an increased risk of grave violations while their risk of being trafficked similarly increases, including in transitional periods, a new UN study has revealed. 

Conflict in Syria has displaced thousands of people. (file)
© WFP | Conflict in Syria has displaced thousands of people. (file)
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The report – the first of its kind – analyses the links between child trafficking and the six grave violations against children caught up in war.
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They are recruitment and use, killing and maiming, rape and other forms of sexual violence, abduction, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access. 
03/10/2024

Lebanese and Syrians Suffer Loss and Displacement amid Surging Attacks

Human Wrongs Watch

2 October 2024 (UNHCR)* — Since a deadly escalation of the conflict in Lebanon began just over a week ago, the Government estimates that more than 1 million people have already been forced to flee their homes – the worst displacement in decades.

Ali Trad, who was displaced from his home in South Lebanon by airstrikes, holds his grandson, Adam, at a collective shelter in Beirut, Lebanon. © UNHCR/Houssam Hariri

The attacks are the most intense since 2006, with Israeli airstrikes hitting dozens of towns across the country, including South Lebanon, Bekaa and Beirut’s southern suburbs.

03/10/2024

United Nations Urges Security Council to Stop ‘Mass Graves for Migrants’

Human Wrongs Watch

(UN News)* — Action is needed now to stop the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Sea from “becoming mass graves for migrants”, two UN agencies on warned the Security Council.

Migrants are rescued off the coast of Libya by the non-governmental organization SOS Méditerranée. (file)
© SOS Méditerranée/Flavio Gasperini | Migrants are rescued off the coast of Libya by the non-governmental organization SOS Méditerranée. (file)
 
“The scale of this tragedy, its impact on survivors, families and communities and the frequency with which we witness deaths in transit constitute an intolerable and utterly soluble, humanitarian crisis,” said Pär Liljert, director of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Office to the UN, referring to one of the world’s most deadly routes for migrants and refugees, as they attempt to reach countries of the European Union.
03/10/2024

Nepal’s Deadly Flash Floods: What Went Wrong?

Human Wrongs Watch

KATHMANDU, Oct 3 2024 (IPS)* Nepal is trying to recover from recent flash floods and landslides caused by heavy rainfall over the last weekend of September, which claimed at least 226 lives.
 
Kathmandu under water because of heavy rainfall, which claimed more than 225 lives in last week of September. Photo: Barsha Shah/IPS

Kathmandu under water because of heavy rainfall, which claimed more than 225 lives in last week of September. Photo: Barsha Shah/IPS

The mid- and eastern parts of the country, including the capital, Kathmandu, experienced the heaviest monsoon rains in two decades from September 26-28, leaving many parts of Kathmandu underwater.

Experts say this is one of the deadliest and worst flash floods that impacted thousands of people in decades.

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01/10/2024

Weaponizing Antisemitism 101: A Back-to-School Special

Human Wrongs Watch

By Roy Eidelson – TRANSCEND Media Service*

For anyone — including a Jew like myself — who hasn’t stubbornly closed their eyes and covered their ears over the past eleven months, one thing should be obvious: it’s simply absurd to label outrage, protest, and despair over the plight of Palestinians in Gaza as “antisemitism.” Period.

23 Sep 2024 – It is irony at its most bitter. Not so very long ago, hundreds of white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia. With tiki-torches held high, they chanted “Jews will not replace us!”

And yet here we are, seven years later, and apparently these fanatical card-carrying antisemites have indeed been “replaced” in the minds of many Americans. Why?

Roy Eidelson

Because a deceitful campaign now portrays anti-genocide college students (including many Jews) as the leading purveyors of “the world’s oldest hatred.”

But for anyone — including a Jew like myself — who hasn’t stubbornly closed their eyes and covered their ears over the past eleven months, one thing should be obvious: it’s simply absurd to label outrage, protest, and despair over the plight of Palestinians in Gaza as “antisemitism.” Period.

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01/10/2024

Gaza: Israeli Attacks Devastate Lives of Children with Disabilities

Human Wrongs Watch

By Human Rights Watch*

Explosive Weapons, Unlawful Blockade Inflict Profound Trauma, Suffering

A woman holds her young son in her lap
Muhammad Haitham Hammad, a 6-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, and his mother, Marwa Atef Khalil Hammad, 27, in a tent after they were displaced, following the Israeli military’s order directing civilians to evacuate from the north of Gaza to the south, September 5, 2024. Muhammad experiences recurrent seizures and was not getting regular access to his medication. © 2024 Ahmad AL lulu for Human Rights Watch

(Jerusalem) – The Israeli government’s attacks and unlawful blockade against Gazahave inflicted profound trauma and suffering on Palestinian children, especially those with disabilities, Human Rights Watch said in a report released on 30 September 2024.

.The Israeli military’s extensive use of explosive weapons has caused serious injuries resulting in permanent disabilities and lifelong scarring for children in Gaza.

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01/10/2024

Losing Out on School: How Conflict and Hunger Rob Children of Their Futures

Human Wrongs Watch

By World Food Programme*

Children amid the devastation in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where the war has destroyed hundreds of schools. Photo: WFP/Ali Jadallah
Children amid the devastation in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where the war has destroyed hundreds of schools. Photo: WFP/Ali Jadallah

In her village in Sudan’s West Darfur region, Samar once eagerly attended class, especially math, her favorite. Today, she lives in a teeming refugee site just across the border in Chad, fetching water and milling sorghum so her family can survive.

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01/10/2024

Lebanon: Over One Million People Uprooted by Ongoing and Deadly Israeli Airstrikes, amid Fears of a Full-Scale Invasion

Human Wrongs Watch

By Daniel Johnson

(UN News)* — More than one million people across Lebanon have been uprooted by ongoing and deadly Israeli airstrikes across the country, including one reported early Monday [] morning in a residential area of central Beirut, adding to fears of a full-scale invasion. 

People gather around a bombed building in a southern suburb of Beirut.
© UNICEF/Dar Al Mussawir | People gather around a bombed building in a southern suburb of Beirut.
 
In a situation update published on Monday the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that 11 health workers had been killed and 10 injured between 17 and 28 September.
 
Some 37 health centres have been forced to close due to the fighting out of 317 in total, and three hospitals treating patients have been evacuated.
30/09/2024

It’s Time for Rich Polluters to Pay for the Climate Crisis They Created

Human Wrongs Watch

NEW YORK, Sep 30 2024 (IPS)** The world is standing at a critical juncture. Climate change is not just a future threat—it’s here, and it’s already devastating lives. From record-breaking heat waves to floods and landslides, the planet is sending us clear signals that we cannot afford to ignore.
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Nakabuye speaks to a crowd of over one thousand at the Youth Climate Strike rally in New York City on September 20, 2024.

But for many of us in the Global South, this crisis is not new. It is a daily reality that we have been living with for years, despite contributing almost nothing to the problem.

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29/09/2024

Italian Authorities Punish Geo Barents Rescue Ship with Two Detention Orders

Human Wrongs Watch

Rotation 66 - Geo Barents

ROME, 25 September 2024 – The Italian authorities imposed yet another punitive measure on the Geo Barents, the search and rescue vessel operated by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), for performing its legal and humanitarian duty to save lives at sea.

This time, the vessel received two separate detention orders, immediately after the Geo Barents had finished disembarking 206 survivors in Genoa, in northern Italy.

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