'Unseen' News and Views
(UN NEWS)* — Global sea surface temperatures reached a record high in May, June, and July – and the warming El Niño weather pattern is only just getting started – experts at the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Monday [].
Alarm bells have been rung at the UN agency in particular because of an “unprecedented peak” in sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic.
Credit: United Nations
According to the Napoleonic French Revolution’s three pillars, Liberty means freedom for an individual to do what he/she wants to do without harming others’ Liberty. Equality means equal opportunity to all the citizens irrespective of their caste, religion, race, gender.
Fraternity means an environment of brotherhood among the citizens of a nation.
“Not true” that “all humans are equal”
DUDUMACAD, Ethiopia, 7 July 2023 (UNFPA)* – “Saving the life of this baby was a miracle and a blessing for my family. I am immensely grateful,” said Amino Bashir, 25, as she held her newborn.
In Ethiopia’s Somali region, a camp in the village of Gabi’as shelters hundreds of households displaced by drought. Over 260,000 women are currently pregnant in the Somali region alone, many of them internally displaced from recurrent, multiple crises and at dire risk of acute undernourishment, without access to even the most basic health care. © UNFPA Ethiopia/Paula Seijo
Ms. Bashir lives in Dudumacad in the Somali region of Ethiopia – one of the areas devastated by a gruelling drought across the Horn of Africa that has affected more than 36 million people so far.
Geneva/Cairo/Port Sudan, 6 July 2023 (IOM)* – Nearly 3 million people have been displaced internally and across borders by the conflict in Sudan, in less than three months.
In addition to the more than 2.2 million internally displaced persons (IDPs), nearly 700,000 others have fled into neighbouring countries, according to the latest figures by the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM).
She heaves a sigh of relief. With her national identity and ration cards in hand, she hurries to the distribution point for World Food Programme (WFP) cash. She already knows what she’ll spend it on.
Tunis – Tunisian security forces have collectively expelled several hundred Black African migrants and asylum seekers, including children and pregnant women, since July 2, 2023 to a remote, militarized buffer zone at the Tunisia–Libya border, Human Rights Watch on 6 July 2023 said.
Anti-racism protesters in Brooklyn, New York, demonstrate demanding justice for the killing of African American, George Floyd. Credit: UN News/Shirin Yaseen
During the three years since a white police officer brutally murdered Floyd, nationwide discussions of systemic racism have extended well beyond focusing on law enforcement to also assess a range of other government functions.
But such scrutiny comes to a halt at the water’s edge — stopping short of probing whether racism has been a factor in U.S. military interventions overseas.
(UN NEWS)* — An independent UN-appointed climate expert on Tuesday [] called for full legal protection to be given to those displaced by the impacts of climate change, to guarantee their human rights.
“In 2020 alone, 30.7 million people were displaced from their homes due to weather-related events. Droughts were the main factor,” Mr. Fry said in his latest thematic report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. “We must take immediate steps to give legal protection to these people.”
(UN NEWS)* — Violations of international law regarding children and armed conflict continued to have a “devastating impact”, the UN’s top official on the issue said on Tuesday [], with a 112 per cent rise in the number of attacks on schools and hospitals.
Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict Virginia Gamba unveiled the Secretary-General’s latest annual report, for 2022, which showed there were 27,180 grave violations overall, an increase from the previous year.
The recorded violations only refer to verified information, with the likely toll much higher, and cover four categories: recruitment and use of children into armed groups or forces, killing and maiming, rape and sexual violence, and abduction.
Eighty-one people have been confirmed dead, but roughly 500 more likely drowned when the ship sank, locked below decks.
Syrians and Iraqi refugees arrive at Skala Sykamias Lesvos Greece. Photo from Wikimedia Commons by Ggia on October 30, 2015.
If you have been reading European news outlets the past several days, you’ll have seen a number of lead stories on the horrific tragedy of a people-smuggling ship, crammed to the gills with migrants hoping to reach European shores from Tobruk, in eastern Libya, sinking off the coast of Greece.
By contrast, most U.S. news organizations have only paid sparing attention to the calamitous event, offering up just a tiny fraction of the coverage that they accord air disasters, or floods and earthquakes in wealthy countries.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 