Archive for ‘Middle East’

03/08/2021

UN: Two Empires Crumbling – and Then What?

Human Wrongs Watch

By Johan Galtung – TRANSCEND Media Service*

Washington:  There is History in the UN 29 Nov 2012 vote: 138 YES to giving Palestine the UN status as “nonmember observer state”, only 9 NO, and 41 abstentions.

Johan Galtung.

Johan Galtung

Beyond Middle East politics the vote also mirrors the limits to the US global, and the Israeli regional empires: 138 defy their grip and favor change, 41+9=50 NOT–for various reasons. A crucial vote on a crucial issue is a crucial test.  Who want what?

First: the OIC, Muslim, Arab: none yielding to USA-Israel in spite of the efforts against the Arab awakening. Israel is alone in the region: Greece-Turkey-Cyprus were all YES.

Next: Saraoui (Sahrawi or Saharawi), Western Sahara building on Spain-Morocco YES, and Kashmir on India-Pakistan YES.

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03/08/2021

“Support Breastfeeding for a Healthier Planet” – World Breastfeeding Week

Human Wrongs Watch

(WHO)* — The theme of World Breastfeeding Week 2020 is “Support breastfeeding for a healthier planet”. In line with this theme, WHO and UNICEF are calling on governments to protect and promote women’s access to skilled breastfeeding counselling, a critical component of breastfeeding support.

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Breastfeeding provides every child with the best possible start in life. It delivers health, nutritional and emotional benefits to both children and mothers. And it forms part of a sustainable food system.

But while breastfeeding is a natural process, it is not always easy. Mothers need support – both to get started and to sustain breastfeeding.

Skilled counselling services can ensure that mothers and families receive this support, along with the information, the advice, and the reassurance they need to nourish their babies optimally.

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03/08/2021

Breastfeeding Central to Eliminating Child Malnutrition

Human Wrongs Watch

2 August 2021 (UN News)*Two senior UN officials are urging Governments to make breastfeeding-friendly environments a priority, in line with commitments made earlier this year to accelerate global progress on malnutrition.

© UNICEF/Vinay Panjwani | A woman breastfeeds her baby in a labour room in India shortly after giving birth.
Henrietta Fore, Executive Director of the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), issued the reminder in a joint statement for World Breastfeeding Week, which runs through 7 August.

01/08/2021

“Now, my daughter is guaranteed at least a meal a day”

Human Wrongs Watch

 By Alexis Masciarelli*

The World Food Programme launched its school meals programme in Venezuela, carrying out the first distributions of take-home rations in the state of Falcon.

Kim eats lunch at home in La Vela de Coro, Venezuela
Kim wants to become a ballet dancer. Photo: WFP/Alexis Masciarelli

Sitting in the kitchen, Kim watches attentively as her mother empties the large blue bag they just went to collect at her school. “One, two, three, four. That’s lentils. One, two, three, four, five, six… That’s rice!”, counts the 5-year-old girl pointing at the food piling up on the table.

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01/08/2021

Coral Reefs Are Dying. Why?

By Paris John Mavrokefalos*

Coral reefs require a clean water environment to survive
Coral reefs are vulnerable to environmental changes
Coral reefs are vulnerable to environmental changes | Image from Wall Street International.

Coral reefs are one of the most striking maritime populations. Large underwater forums or structures consisting in principle of skeletal structures of colonial marine invertebrates.

But certain types of corals are flexible organisms that create some of the world’s most diversified ecosystems.

Intelligently resemble or mimic plants and trees and include species such as sea fans and the sea, but are vulnerable to environmental changes.

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01/08/2021

HUFUD Peace & Human Rights Award – Essay Competition

Human Wrongs Watch

By Alberto Portugheis | HUFUD – TRANSCEND Media Service*

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Submissions Deadline: 30 September 2021

The recipient of the £1000 HUFUD Peace Award will be announced on 30 November 2021.

True to its name, HUFUD-Humanity United for Universal Demilitarisation’s message remains constant. We must achieve what we propose: to live in a NON-MILITARISED planet.

We are looking for bright and imaginative Peace Seekers to come up with innovative plans for the planet to be free of Armed Forces – that is, free of wars, politically concocted as well as those of a private initiative.

The plans would advise all governments how to end the Arms Industry, meaning the end of NATO, of the United Nations Security Council, and of all armies in the world.

The proposals should explain why the end of Militarism is the only possible way to prevent governments from abusing the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

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01/08/2021

Famine Relief Blocked by Bullets, Red tape and Lack of Funding – Acute Food Insecurity Reaches New Highs

Conflict, COVID-19, climate crisis likely to drive higher levels of acute food insecurity in 23 hunger hotspots – new report
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WFP/Tsiory Andriantsoarana

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ROME (WFP)* – Efforts to fight a global surge in acute food insecurity are being stymied in several countries by fighting and blockades that cut off life-saving aid to families on the brink of famine, warn the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) in a new report issued on .

Bureaucratic obstacles as well as a lack of funding also hamper the two UN agencies’ efforts to provide emergency food assistance and enable farmers to plant at scale and at the right time.

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31/07/2021

Unchecked Spyware Industry Enables Abuses

Human Wrongs Watch

By Human Rights Watch*

Governments Should Halt Trade in Surveillance Technology

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31/07/2021

Sink or Swim: Can Island States Survive the Climate Crisis?

31 July 2021 (UN News)*Small island nations across the world are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis, and their problems have been accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has severely affected their economies, and their capacity to protect themselves from possible extinction. We take a look at some of the many challenges they face, and how they could be overcome.
© UNICEF/Vlad Sokhin | With most of its land only a few feet above sea level, Kiribati is seeing growing damage from storms and flooding.
Low emissions, but high exposure

The 38 member states and 22 associate members that the UN has designated as Small Island Developing States  or SIDS are caught in a cruel paradox: they are collectively responsible for less than one per cent of global carbon emissions, but they are suffering severely from the effects of climate change, to the extent that they could become uninhabitable.

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30/07/2021

Greece: Stop Denying Refugee Children an Education

Human Wrongs Watch

By Human Rights Watch*

Ensure All Asylum-Seeking Children Are Enrolled in Coming School Year

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Parwana Amiri, 17, lives in the Ritsona camp, near Athens. She has helped organize informal classes for asylum-seeking children in the camp, whose access to public schools was severely limited by local authorities during the 2020-21 school year. © 2021 Human Rights Watch. ©

(Athens) – The Greek government should urgently reform discriminatory policies so that children seeking asylum can go to school when the new year begins on September 13, 2021, Human Rights Watch on 29 July 2021 said.

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