(UN News)* — Ongoing gang violence in Haiti has displaced more than a million people, nearly a tenth of the population, or three times more than last year, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the country said on Thursday [].
The “unprecedented crisis” in Haiti means that every number presented “is a new record,” said Ulrika Johnson, speaking from neighbouring Dominican Republic to journalists at UN Headquarters in New York.
“The suffering that this is causing is immense, and I would say it is really heartbreaking to see, to witness, to listen to victims of violence,” she added.
(UN News)* — More than 6,000 people in Haiti have been forced from their homes by gang violence in almost a month, hampering aid efforts by humanitarian agencies, the United Nations warned on .
Since the end of January, a wave of extreme brutality has led to widespread loss of life and the displacement of over 6,000 people in the capital, Port-au-Prince.
“We are deeply alarmed and appalled by the unacceptable and inhumane intensity of violence in Haiti,” the Haiti Humanitarian Country Team, which is made up of UN agencies, national and international NGOs and donors, said in a statement.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Feb 25 2025 (IPS)* – Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) appeal captured US mass discontent against globalisation.
In recent decades, variations of America First have reflected growing ethnonationalism in the world’s presumptive hegemon.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Deglobalisation?
Trade liberalisation probably peaked at the end of the 20th century with the creation of the multilateral World Trade Organization (WTO), which the West kept outside the UN system.
With deindustrialisation in the North blamed on globalisation, their governments gradually abandoned trade liberalisation, especially after the 2008 global financial crisis.
Free trade mahaguru Jagdish Bhagwati has long complained of the weak commitment to multilateral trade liberalisation. Most recent supposed free trade agreements (FTAs) have been plurilateral or bilateral, undermining multilateralism while promoting non-trade measures.
(UN News)* — Breast cancer cases are expected to increase by 38 percent globally by 2050, withannual deathsfrom the diseaseprojected to rise by 68 percent, according to a new report from the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a specialisedbranch of the World HealthOrganization (WHO).
Those who have done the least to cause the climate crisis are the worst affected, while those who have done the most to provoke it are the most shielded from its impacts.
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We talk about this in the new episode of SystemShift, a Greenpeace podcast that explores how we can move from a world that serves the economy to an economy that works for people and the planet.
This time Carl and Joycelyn host two young climate leaders: Lali Riascos, from Guapi, Colombia, and Mateus Fernandes, from Sao Paulo,Brazil.
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 24 2025 (IPS)* –The UN’s human rights agenda is in danger of faltering since the Geneva-based Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) is planning to “restructure” the office, under the moniker OHCHR 2.0.
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Credit: United Nations
But this proposal, if implemented, would result in the abolition of the Special Procedures Branch, established by the Human Rights Council (HRC), to report and advise on human rights from thematic and country-specific perspectives.
(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:
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.
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.
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
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 