(UN News)* — As the death toll from the recent unrest in Kazakhstan mounts to 164, the UN Office for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Tuesday [11 January 2022] requested “prompt, independent, impartial investigations” into the killings, and whether “unnecessary and disproportionate use of force was made by security forces”.
Close to 10,000 people are now estimated to be held in detention following the riots.
“We understand that the Ministry of Interior has announced that some 9,900 people are in detention as of the 11th of January. Now, this is clearly a huge number,” said OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell, briefing reporters at the United Nations in Geneva (UNOG).
ALMATY, Kazakhstan, Jan 12 2022 (IPS)* – The most violent protests of the past 30 years have erupted across Kazakhstan — exposing decades of inequality, injustice, and corruption. The protests of an unprecedented scale have rocked cities across Kazakhstan for days, as the population grew increasingly dissatisfied with the country’s leadership.
View of downtown Nur-Sultan, the capital of Kazakhstan. Credit: World Bank/Shynar Jetpissova
The government initially tried a carrot-and-stick approach to the unrest, but later was pushed to call a state of emergency and ultimately to request military help from former Soviet allies.
10 January 2022 (NRC)* — The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) are alarmed by the detention of more than 600 migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in front of the former Community Day Centre in Tripoli early this morning.
Propaganda is most impactful when people don’t think it’s propaganda, and most decisive when it’s censorship you never knew happened. When we imagine that the U.S. military only occasionally and slightly influences U.S. movies, we are extremely badly deceived.
The actual impact is on thousands of movies made, and thousands of others never made. And television shows of every variety.
(UN News)* — The UN and partners launched a more than $5 billion funding appeal for Afghanistan on Tuesday [11 January 2022], in the hope of shoring up collapsing basic services there, which have left 22 million in need of assistance inside the country, and 5.7 million people requiring help beyond its borders.
Speaking in Geneva, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said that $4.4 billion was needed for the Afghanistan Humanitarian Response Plan alone, “to pay direct” to health workers and others, not the de facto authorities.
(UN News)* — Amid record global displacement, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, on Monday [10 January 2022] urged European countries to prioritize the better protection of people fleeing war, conflict and persecution.
UNHCR made the appeal in recommendations to France, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU), and the Czech Republic, which assumes the presidency in July.
MADRID, Jan 6 2022 (IPS)* – There are more under-reported consequences of human activities unmatching the rhythm of Mother Nature. Such is the case, among many others, of the growing salinisation and ‘plastification’ of the world’s soils.
In fact, currently it is estimated that there are more than 833 million hectares of salt-affected soils around the globe (8.7% of the planet). This implies the loss of soil’s capacity to grow food and also increasing impacts on water and the ability to filter pollution.
Soil salinisation and sodification are major soil degradation processes threatening ecosystems and are recognised as being among the most important problems at a global level for agricultural production, food security and sustainability in arid and semi-arid regions, says the UN on occasion of the 2021 World Soil Day.
The future is gloomy, with abortion rights threatened, rampant voter suppression and radical Republicans undermining democracy at every turn
The March to Save America rally on 6 January 2021 that preceded the US Capitol ‘insurrection’ | Shay Horse/NurPhoto/PA Images
(openDemocracy)* — Sad to say, when it comes to political life and civil society in the United States, 2021 has not given proponents of democracy and human rights much to celebrate.
(WMO)* — Record-breaking heat and rainfall, devastating fires and debilitating drought were among the extreme weather, climate and water events of 2021, with human, economic and environmental impacts which will far outlast the calendar year.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 