Armed conflict is sadly nothing new for 27-year-old Nway Nway Htay. An ethnic Rakhine woman originally from Myanmar’s western Rakhine State, she became familiar with the sounds of artillery and gunfire as the Myanmar Armed Forces, locally known as the Tatmadaw, battled ethnic armed groups in her native state. Security was something she constantly worried about.
30/07/2021
‘I’m Not Old Enough to Be a Woman’ Says Trafficked Teen
Human Wrongs Watch
30 July 2021 (UN News)* — A teenage girl who was sold for sex for the price of a few beers as a twelve-year-old, has told the United Nations how she was trafficked between Burundi and Tanzania in East Africa.
Some one thousand victims of human trafficking have been identified in Burundi since 2017, according to the UN’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Elisabeth (not her real name) is one of the lucky ones. She survived the ordeal and received assistance from IOM to return home to Burundi.
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29/07/2021
Every Country in the World Is Affected by Human Trafficking
(United Nations)* — Human trafficking is a crime that exploits women, children and men for numerous purposes including forced labour and sex. Since 2003 the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has collected information on about 225,000 victims of trafficking detected worldwide.
Globally countries are detecting and reporting more victims and are convicting more traffickers. This can be the result of increased capacity to identify victims and/or an increased number of trafficked victims.
read more »
29/07/2021
Trafficking in Women and Girls for Sexual Exploitation, ‘One of the Most Widespread and Abhorrent Forms of Human Trafficking’
By UN Secretary-General, António Guterres*
In the midst of a global pandemic, accompanied by rising inequalities and economic devastation, the voices of human trafficking survivors and victims risk being drowned out.
But listening to their stories is more crucial than ever as the COVID-19 crisis increases fragilities and drives up desperation.
As many as 124 million more people have been pushed into extreme poverty by the pandemic, leaving many millions vulnerable to trafficking.
Children are at great and growing risk: they represent one-third of victims globally — a share that has tripled in the last 15 years. Half of victims in low-income countries are children, most of whom are trafficked for forced labour.
read more »
29/07/2021
Water Scarcity: Coming Soon
Human Wrongs Watch
– In 1995, a highly-respected water expert in South Africa, Bill Pitman, in very concise terms illustrated that the country, already battling a growing lack of water then, would likely run out in 25 years if it did not increase its supply.
Credit: UNICEF
Twenty-five years have now passed and the country is thirstier than ever.
The recent water crisis in Cape Town is just one manifestation of the nation’s chronic water scarcity. And there is likely more water trouble ahead.
read more »
29/07/2021
Bangladesh: Deadly Flooding, Landslides Devastate Rohingya Refugees
Human Wrongs Watch
(UN News)* — Three days of strong winds and heavy monsoon rain on sprawling refugee sites in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar have taken Rohingya refugee lives and wreaked havoc and destruction, the UN refugee agency said on Wednesday [28 July 2021].
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29/07/2021
COVID-19: Education Replaced by Shuttered Schools, Violence, Teenage Pregnancy
Human Wrongs Watch
(UN News)* — A culture of “safety, friends and food” at school has been replaced by “anxiety, violence, and teenage pregnancy”, with remote learning out of reach for millions, the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, on 27 July 2021 said.
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28/07/2021
Civilizing the Savage
Human Wrongs Watch
By Robert C. Koehler | Common Wonders – TRANSCEND Media Service*
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We crossed the Atlantic, encountered a bunch of savages, defeated them, claimed the continent. We won! This is the history I remember learning, as satisfying and stupid as a John Wayne movie.
The myth is crumbling and cracking, its certainty now as precarious as the statue of a Confederate general. Truth flows in through the holes, e.g.:
By the late 1830s, most of the native residents had been “removed” from a big chunk of the South — a few million acres of land in Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Florida — so white men could start growing cotton there.
In 1838, a final group of stubborn Cherokees were deported to Oklahoma Territory, as President Martin Van Buren sent 7,000 soldiers to do the job.
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28/07/2021
How Composting Can Reduce Our Impact on the Planet
27 July 2021 (UNEP)* — Every year, across the world, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is either lost or wasted, says the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) Food Waste Index.
Unsplash/freepik / 27 Jul 2021
27/07/2021
‘Mangroves Play an Essential Role as Carbon Sinks, Sequestering Atmospheric and Oceanic Carbon for Long Periods of Time’
Human Wrongs Watch
Support mangrove conservation, UNESCO chief says
(UN News)* — The world is waking up to the importance of mangroves, a senior UN official said on Monday [26 July 2021], underscoring the need for everyone to support restoration and protection of these crucial habitats.
Audrey Azoulay, Director General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), made the appeal in her message for the International Day for the Conservation of the Mangrove Ecosystem, observed on 26 July.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 