'Unseen' News and Views
Malnutrition is deadly. A child suffering from severe acute malnutrition is nine times more likely to die than a well-nourished child.
But the dire consequences of malnutrition aren’t always immediate or visible from the outside.
Poor diets also inflict devastating damage on the inside, stunting children’s growth, impairing their brain development and leaving them susceptible to disease.
Pramila Patten, Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, briefs the Security Council during the meeting on women, peace and security. Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe
Lassen was speaking at the August 19 Security Council meeting on Women and Peace and Security after the 16th annual Report of the Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence revealed a 25 percent increase in conflict-related sexual violence from the previous year and concerning global trends on the use of sexual violence as a form of torture and against prisoners of war.
Women and girls made up 92 percent of the victims; sexual violence against children increased by 35 percent, the report, which was published on August 14 said.
The Leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), Yasser Arafat, arrived at UN Headquarters by helicopter. A view of the helicopter as it approached the North Lawn of the UN campus on 13 November 1974. But Arafat was denied a US visa for a second visit to the UN in 1988. Credit: UN Photo/Michos Tzovaras
Enforced disappearance has frequently been used as a strategy to spread terror within the society.
The feeling of insecurity generated by this practice is not limited to the close relatives of the disappeared, but also affects their communities and society as a whole.
Enforced disappearance has become a global problem and is not restricted to a specific region of the world.
Once largely the product of military dictatorships, enforced disappearances can nowadays be perpetrated in complex situations of internal conflict, especially as a means of political repression of opponents.
Of particular concern are:
The turbines in a wind farm, like this one in the Northeast region of Brazil, contain magnets made from rare earths in their generators. This makes rare earths, which Brazil has in abundance, indispensable for both decarbonized electricity generation and the development of electric motors in the automotive sector and others. Credit: Fotos Públicas
Brazil is the second country in reserves of this natural resource, estimated at 21 million tons, surpassed only by China, with 44 million tons, explained Julio Nery, director of Mining Affairs at the Brazilian Mining Institute (Ibram).
Together, the two countries account for about two-thirds of the total.
Credit: Corte IDH/Twitter
For the first time in international law, an international tribunal recognised care as an autonomous human right.
Advisory Opinion 31/25, issued in response to a request from Argentina, elevates care – long invisible and relegated to the private sphere – to the level of a universal enforceable entitlement.
BOCAS DEL TORO PROVINCE, Panama (UNFPA)* 29 August 2025 -– “We don’t have special care for women,” said Jakelyn Chiu, a single mother of three from the Bocas del Toro Province in Panama. “Here in the district, we don’t have a permanent gynaecologist. Women have to go to another province for care.”
Ms. Chiu had her first baby at age 17 and now works with UNFPA, the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency, to empower adolescent girls and prevent unintended pregnancies in her community.
Across Latin America and the Caribbean, a girl becomes a mother every 20 seconds, according to a recent report by UNFPA.
(UN News)* — Climate change could push at least 5.9 million more children and young people in Latin America and the Caribbean into poverty by 2030 unless governments act now.
– A report has warned about the risks of expanding oil and gas exploration in the Colombian Amazon, which may undermine environmental goals, Indigenous rights, and long-term economic stability, unless the government pivots toward sustainable development pathways.
The study, “Oil and Gas Expansion in the Colombian Amazon: Navigating Risks, Economics, and Pathways to a Sustainable Future”, lays out the stakes for one of the planet’s most biodiverse and climate-critical regions.
A new report: Progress on Household Drinking Water and Sanitation 2000–2024: special focus on inequalities – launched by WHO and UNICEF during World Water Week 2025 – reveals that, while some progress has been made, major gaps persist.
People living in low-income countries, fragile contexts, rural communities, children, and minority ethnic and indigenous groups face the greatest disparities.
Ten key facts from the report:
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 