Rome (IFAD)* -–In celebration of the International Day of Family Remittances (IDFR) on 16 June, the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) has on 14 June 2024 unveiled a new report that provides evidence of the transformative impact of digital remittances, as a driver of financial inclusion and poverty reduction worldwide.
Despite persistent gender gaps, the hard-earned money sent back home by migrant workers remains a vital lifeline for over 800 million people, particularly for women and vulnerable populations.
Joanita and her husband live in two different countries to support their family and remittances sent back home have been a lifeline for them. Migrant workers sent US $669 billion back to their families in remittance-reliant countries in 2023. PHOTO:IOM/Maulana Iberahim
(United Nations)* — It is projected that by 2030 more than US$ 5 trillion will have been sent home by migrants to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with much of this money going directly to rural areas where 80 percent of the world’s poor live, facing food shortages and the impacts of climate change.
(UN News)* —The global fight to tackle female genital mutilation (FGM) is being undermined by the movement of some girls across national borders and beyond to undergo the procedure, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) warned in a new report published on Friday [14 June 2024].
Although many States have intensified their efforts towards eradication, the practice continues across the world in part due to “the clandestine nature of cross-border and transnational FGM,” it said.
“Female genital mutilation is part of a continuum of gender-based violence and has no place in a human rights-respecting universe,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.
‘I’ve seen the opposite of hope. We can’t allow the normalisation of this.’
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UN News/Abdelmonem Makki | Speaking from Gaza, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told UN News “this is and has been a war on children.”
(UN News)* — Almost 3,000 malnourished children are at risk of dying before their families’ eyes in Gaza, where the eight-month-long war continues, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) as spokesperson James Elder told UN News on Saturday [] about the situation on the ground in the besieged and bombarded enclave.
(UN News)* — As nearly 40 per cent of land across the planet is degraded with more acres lost every second, governments, businesses and communities must galvanize action to reverse the damage and protect Earth, the UN chief said in a strong message for the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought, marked annually on 17 June.
“The security, prosperity and health of billions of people rely on thriving lands supporting lives, livelihoods and ecosystems, but we’re vandalising the Earth that sustains us.”
JERUSALEM (WFP)* -– As fighting escalates in the south and centre of Gaza, the toll on civilians is devastating, and the continued hostile operating environment make it near-impossible for humanitarian operations to deliver desperately needed food aid, warned WFP’s Deputy Executive Director, Carl Skau as he on 14 June 2024 concluded a two day- mission to Gaza.
”Driving through Gaza City to Jabalia, the destruction is unbelievable. In the North of Gaza, I didn’t see one single building intact and there was constant shelling with drones buzzing overhead,” said Skau.
“The people here are traumatised and exhausted. One woman who had lost her husband told me this war has been going on for 250 days – but to her it felt like 250 years.”
Brussels (IOM)* — The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on 14 June 2024 launched two new reports on Belgium’s remittances landscape and the impact of high transaction costs on remittance flows and development outcomes for 21 countries.
Kriticos who is originally from Zambia and Tanzania and Jason from Rwanda are two of the many diaspora members who have embraced a new life in Belgium as well as their roots. Photo: IOM/Moayad Zaghdani
In Belgium, where one third of the population has a migrant background, over USD 7 billion (EUR 6.5 billion) in remittances were sent in 2023, but the costs of sending are high.
(UN News)* —Violence against children caught in armed conflict reached “extreme levels” last year, with a “shocking” 21 per cent increase in extreme violations, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a report published on Thursday [13 June 2024].
Children were killed and maimed in unprecedented numbers in places such as Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, notably Gaza; Burkina Faso, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan and Ukraine, his annual report on Children and Armed Conflict revealed.
The alarming increase was due to the evolving nature, complexity, and intensification of armed conflict, as well as the use of explosive weapons in populated areas, the report said.
UNHCR warns against apathy and inaction amid spike in forced displacement.
GENEVA, 13 June 2024 (UNHCR)* — Overall numbers rise to 120 million by May 2024; conflicts from Sudan to Gaza and Myanmar are creating new displacement and urgently require resolution.
Forced displacement surged to historic new levels across the globe last year and this, according to the 2024 flagship Global Trends Report from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
The rise in overall forced displacement – to 120 million by May 2024 – was the 12th consecutive annual increase and reflects both new and mutating conflicts and a failure to resolve long-standing crises.
The figure would make the global displaced population equivalent to the 12th largest country in the world, around the size of Japan’s.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 