(UN News)* — Global crises, conflicts, and the climate emergency are escalating trafficking risks, the UN warned on Sunday [], the World Day against Trafficking in Persons. People lacking legal status, living in poverty and without decent work often become the primary targets of traffickers.
IOM Port of Spain | Venezuelan migrant Manuela Molina (not her real name) was promised a decent job in Trinidad, but minutes after her arrival she was forced into a van and taken to a secret location.
.
In his message for the Day, UN chief António Guterres called human trafficking “a heinous violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms.” He said that this crime preys on vulnerability and thrives in times of conflict and instability, with more and more people targeted today.
The United Kingdom parliament has passed a bill inconsistent with the country’s obligations under international human rights and refugee law that could have profound consequences for people seeking international protection, warned the UN rights chief and the head of refugee agency UNHCR on Tuesday [17 July 2023].
The Illegal Immigration Bill eliminates access to asylum for anyone who arrives “irregularly” in the UK, meaning they passed through a country – however briefly – where they did not face persecution.
Havana, Cuba, 5 July 2023 (WMO)* – Extreme weather and climate shocks are becoming more acute in Latin America and the Caribbean, as the long-term warming trend and sea level rise accelerate, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Temperatures over the past 30 years have warmed an average 0.2° Celsius per decade – the highest rate on record, according to the State of the Climate in Latin America and the Caribbean 2022 report. It highlights a vicious cycle of of spiraling impacts on countries and local communities.
(UN News)* — Low women’s empowerment and large gender gaps are commonplace in many parts of the world, the UN’s lead agencies on gender equality and international development said in a new report published on Tuesday [].
Moreover, fewer than one per cent of women and girls globally live in a country with both high women’s empowerment and a small gender gap in areas such as health and education.
(UN News)* — Indigenous Peoples have the ancestral wisdom to guide humanity towards a more sustainable use of the Earth’s resources, yet they are systematically discriminated against and excluded, UN rights chief Volker Türk warned on Monday [17 July 2023].
He was speaking in Geneva at the annual meeting on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, referencing in-depth conversations he had had in recent months with Indigenous representatives during missions to Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Kenya.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, 17 July 2023 (WFP)* – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has been forced to cut the number of people receiving emergency food assistance in Haiti by 25 percent in July, compared to the previous month, due to dwindling funding levels. Tragically, this means 100,000 of the most vulnerable Haitians are forced to get by without any WFP support this month.
.
People wait to redeem food vouchers at a WFP distribution point in Cite Soleil, Port-au-Prince. Photo: WFP/Peyvand Khorsandi
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 17 2023 (IPS)*– Just after a band of mercenaries tried to oust the government in the Maldives back in 1988, I asked a Maldivian diplomat, using a familiar military catch phrase, about the strength of his country’s “standing army.”
“Standing army?”, the diplomat asked with mock surprise, and remarked perhaps half-jokingly, “We don’t even have a sitting army.”
6 Jul 2023 – Among the comments concerning the previous blog, some readers have questioned the following statement:
“In our times simple colonialism has been replaced by neo-colonialism. . . . economic sanctions and unbridled exploitation carried out by Europe and North America against the countries of the Global South.”
This month I will deal with the question of “unbridled exploitation.”
You are probably aware of the fact that the mineral and agricultural resources of the countries of Africa and Latin America are exploited by big corporations based in Europe and North America.
You may believe that the profits extracted from the South are balanced by humanitarian aid that is given to these countries by the North.
(UN News)* — The international community must act now to protect future generations from the scourge of conflict-related sexual violence, the UN’s advocate on the issue, Pramila Patten, told the Security Council on Friday [
UN Photo/Marie Frechon (file)
Victims of sexual violence at a shelter in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo. UN Photo/Marie Frechon (file)
“Every new wave of warfare brings with it a rising tide of human tragedy, including new waves of war’s oldest, most silenced and least condemned crime,” she said.
The Council meeting to examine implementation of its resolutions on conflict-related sexual violence was convened by the United Kingdom, which holds the rotating presidency this month.
More children continue to fall victims of trafficking from exploitative and discriminative practices. Photo: IOM.
Geneva/ Washington, 5 July 2023 (IOM)* – More than half of child trafficking victims are trafficked within their own country according to new report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University (FXB).
The report further reveals that in cases of international trafficking children are mostly trafficked to neighbouring, wealthier countries.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 