'Unseen' News and Views
They were one of the first domesticated plants, but millets have been overshadowed by other grains over the last decades. This year, FAO is celebrating the International Year of Millets to help everyone rediscover the multi-faceted reasons this crop should resurface in our markets and on our tables. ©FAO/Jeanette Van Acker
(UN News)* — The UN migration agency (IOM) called on Friday [] for the setting up of a humanitarian corridor in Niger to enable voluntary returns of stranded migrants, after July’s military takeover triggered border & airspace closures.
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IOM Regional Director Christopher Gascon told reporters in Geneva that 4,800 migrants were hosted by IOM at seven transit centres in the country, awaiting voluntary return. They were primarily from western Africa: Mali, Guinea, Senegal and Nigeria, he said.
Mr. Gascon said airport access was crucial to “organise charter flights in order to return people home”.
He stressed that IOM’s transit centres were currently 40 per cent over capacity and an additional 1,400 migrants outside the centres needed help.
Mr. Gascon added that setting up a corridor would also facilitate the delivery of aid to conflict-affected areas of Niger.
(UN News)* — UN Secretary-General António Guterres marked Wednesday’s [] International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance by condemning the “atrocious crime” and urging all Member States to hold those who perpetrate it accountable.
Enforced disappearance has regularly been used as a tool for instilling fear and exert control over a population. The feeling of insecurity it generates is not limited to close relatives of the disappeared, but also their communities and society as a whole.
In a post on social media platform X, The UN chief said enforced disappearance was “a serious human rights violation that has frequently been used to spread terror…I call on countries to help put an end to this atrocious crime”.
(UN News)* — Criminal gangs in southeast Asia are using torture and abuse to force hundreds of thousands of people into an online scam operation which generates billions of dollars per year, the UN rights office (OHCHR) said on Tuesday [].
OHCHR said that at least 120,000 people across Myanmar and another 100,000 in Cambodia may be held in situations where they are forced to execute lucrative online scams – from illegal gambling to crypto fraud.
Other States including Lao PDR, the Philippines and Thailand have also been identified as main countries of destination or transit.
Victims, not criminals
“People who are coerced into working in these scamming operations endure inhumane treatment while being forced to carry out crimes,” said UN rights chief Volker Türk. “They are victims. They are not criminals,” he insisted.
(UN News)* — Truck drivers in southern Africa who have been recruited to traffic or smuggle people illegally are learning about the risks involved thanks to the UN drugs and crime agency, UNODC.
“I used to transport sugar from Malawi,” said an anonymous driver, who was arrested for migrant trafficking. “In 2016, I had to wait for several days at a border crossing in Tanzania for customs checks. I was approached by a man who offered me a lot of money to transport goats.”
His story is not unique.
By Victoria Strang, Policy Advocate with Faith Communities | Human Rights Watch*
Christian, Muslim, and Jewish Leaders Speak at Parliament of the World’s Religions
Rabbi Brant Rosen speaking at the Parliament of the World’s Religions in Chicago, Illinois on August 16, 2023. © 2023 Victoria Strang/Human Rights Watch
— At a gathering of 7,000 people of faith last week in Chicago, an important discussion took place on Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians.
Viola Fletcher was just seven years old when she was forcibly displaced from her hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma, by an armed mob which destroyed the predominantly Black enclave of Greenwood, killing hundreds of residents.
(UNEP)* — It has been another season of extreme weather, with everything from record temperatures to devastating floods hammering countries around the world. But one of the most worrying trends has been what scientists have called an unprecedented planet-wide ocean heatwave.
June saw the highest ever average global ocean surface temperatures, with local records being set from Ireland to Antarctica. In Florida, waters reached 38°C.
The North Atlantic recorded its hottest ever temperature in July. And the Mediterranean Sea hit 28.7°C, an all-time high.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 