Armed conflict, climate shocks and economic downturn drive out local experts who take with them the know-how that is essential to reversing the crisis.
So the crisis continues. And the brain drain intensifies.
(Washington, DC) – The Trump administration’s omission of key sections and manipulation of certain countries’ rights abuses degrade and politicize the 2025 US State Department human rights report, Human Rights Watch on 12 August 2025 said.
(UN News)* — When Israeli forces in Gaza issue a new displacement order ahead of an incursion into a neighbourhood or city, Palestinian civilians are expected to pack their bags and flee – perhaps for the third, fourth, or tenth time.
But for an increasing number of Palestinians, including those who cannot hear the orders or whose mobility is impaired, following these orders may be impossible. Yet, failure to do so, could cost them their lives.
“In a normal situation, people with disabilities suffer the most. And in wartime, of course, the situation is heightened further,” said Muhannad Salah Al-Azzeh, member of the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities at a public dialogue this week in Geneva.
With the number of disabled people in Gaza increasing every day, Mr. Al-Azzeh said that the minimum level of safety for people with disabilities is not being upheld.
JNOUB, Lebanon, Aug 15 2025 (IPS)* ––“Special, targeted operations in southern Lebanon,” a phrase that has echoed repeatedly over the past two years in Israeli Defence Force (IDF) statements.
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But behind these clinical military terms lies a human cost that statistics cannot capture.
Morning after an Israeli attack in Tyre, Lebanon. Credit: Nour
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The residents of southern Lebanon—mothers, fathers, children, and elders—are the ones who face the daily reality of displacement, loss, and uncertainty.
Their homes become coordinates on military maps; their neighborhoods, theaters of “operations.”
It’s this vicious cycle that as long as the institutions are still so weak, you have the Wild West like in old American movies, where the sheriff is the judge, jury and executioner, all in one.
(UN News)* — With armed gangs expanding their influence, self-defence groups morphing into gang-like entities and public officials acting with impunity, Haiti is slowly becoming something like the Wild West, according to William O’Neill, the UN’s designated expert on human rights forthe Caribbean island nation.
And if you ask Mr. O’Neill what is creating conditions akin to the Wild West, the answer is desperation.
With over 1.3 million Haitians displaced and half of the country going hungry, desperation is not some abstract idea in Haiti — it is a lived reality.
(UN News)* — Sexual violence in conflict zones rose sharply in 2024, increasing by a quarter compared to the previous year, the UN reported on Thursday [].
More than 4,600 survivors endured abuses used as weapons of war, torture, terrorism and political repression.
According to the annual Report of the Secretary-General on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence, both State and non-State actors were responsible for violations in 21 countries, with the highest numbers recorded in the Central African Republic (CAR), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Haiti, Somalia and South Sudan.
Women and girls made up 92% of victims, but men, boys, people with diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, racial and ethnic minorities – together with some persons with disabilities – were also targeted, ranging in age from one to 75.
FREIBURG, Germany, Aug 15 2025 (IPS)** –– The EU likes to think of itself as a normative power — a community of values, committed to upholding international law, promoting peace, protecting civilians and building a rules-based global order.
These are not just lofty ideals; they are enshrined in EU treaties, declarations and Council conclusions.
Credit: alliance/Anadolu/Moiz Salhi
But when it comes to the brutal, drawn-out destruction of Gaza and the continued illegal occupation of Palestine, these principles seem to have become hollow rhetoric.
Worse, they are being actively undermined by the craven inaction of the EU’s institutions and the blockage of governments like Germany, Italy, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
The European Commission has been shamefully absent as well.
(UN News)* — At least 100 children in Gaza have died from malnutrition and hunger, prompting humanitarians to underscore the need to speed up medical evacuations from the enclave while also allowing more food to enter.
These young deaths are “the latest in the war on children and childhood in Gaza,” Philippe Lazzarini, head of UN Palestine refugee agency UNRWA, said in a tweet on Wednesday [].
The toll also includes some 40,000 boys and girls reported killed or injured due to bombardment and airstrikes, at least 17,000 unaccompanied and separated children, and one million deeply traumatised youngsters who are not getting an education.
People in Haiti are living through “hell on earth,” according to William O’Neill, the UN’s designated expert on human rights in Haiti.
Armed gangs – predominantly in the capital Port-au-Prince – are parasitically extracting financial resources from the population and perpetrating horrific acts of violence, he says – but they’re just one cog in a larger cycle of impunity, corruption and violence.
Following the release of the most recent report on human rights in Haiti, UN News’ Naima Sawaya spoke to Mr. O’Neill about whether a path forward to peace even exists. She began by asking if he had ever met a gang leader.
Cuts to a programme that maintained communal facilities for refugees in Cox’s Bazar have meant lost income for families and a more precarious environment in the camps.
(UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)* — In the hilly terrain of Cox’s Bazar, life for over 1 million Rohingya refugees in the world’s largest and most densely populated refugee camp is always a struggle, but monsoon season brings fresh challenges.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks after being sworn in by Vice President JD Vance near the White House in Washington, DC, January 21, 2025. © 2025 AP Photo/Evan Vucci
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 