'Unseen' News and Views
(UN News)* — From celebrities to civil society, a growing number of people around the world are providing unprecedented support for UNRWA, the UN agency supplying a lifeline to two million Palestinians trapped in war-torn Gaza.
(UN News)* — Recent “catastrophic and massive floods” in Bangladesh have affected millions of people across the country, including those in Cox’s Bazar where nearly one million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar live alongside host communities, spokesperson William Spindler told journalists in Geneva on Friday [].
On 14 August [2024], Indigenous Peoples and rights activists came to find out that the Tanzanian government decided to exclude people from 11 wards composed of 25 villages and 96 sub-villages in Ngorongoro from voter registration, effectively denying more than 100,000 Maasai from their guaranteed democratic right to civic participation.
Between 2001 and 2022, the Mau Forest’s deforestation resulted in the loss of about 533 square kilometers of tree cover. Now, a group of women, under the aegis of the Paran Women Group, are preparing to plant 100,000 saplings this rainy season in an effort to restore the forest.
Paran Women Group’s executive director, Naiyan Kiplagat, is working in the forest. The group are passionate guardians of the environment and promoters of gender equality. Credit: Joyce Chimbi/IPS
– The Great Rift Valley is part of an intra-continental ridge system that runs through Kenya from north to south.
– A New Zealand bill that would roll back Indigenous rights is unlikely to pass – but it’s emblematic of a growing climate of hostility from governing politicians. A recent survey shows that almost half of New Zealanders believe racial tensions have worsened under the right-wing government in power since December 2023.
Credit: Dave Lintott / AFP via Getty Images
The Treaty Principles Bill reinterprets the principles of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi. New Zealand’s founding text, this agreement between the British government and Indigenous Māori chiefs established British governorship over the islands in return for recognition of Māori ownership of land and other property.
Yemen, 5 September (IOM)* – In response to the severe flooding and violent windstorms affecting nearly 562,000 people in Yemen, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) has launched a USD 13.3 million appeal to deliver urgent life-saving assistance.
(UN News)* — The number of people experiencing catastrophic hunger has surged more than twofold in 2024, due largely to the ongoing conflicts in Gaza and Sudan, according to new figures released by the UN on Thursday [].
PHOTO CREDIT: Mathilde Vu/NRC
3 September 2024 (NRC)* — “As the heads of humanitarian organisations operating in Sudan, we urgently call on the international community to address the immense hunger crisis within the country.
“We cannot be clearer: Sudan is experiencing a starvation crisis of historic proportions. And yet, the silence is deafening. People are dying of hunger, every day, and yet the focus remains on semantic debates and legal definitions.
Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, 2 September 2024 (WMO)* — Africa bears an exceptionally heavy burden from climate change and disproportionately high costs for essential climate adaptation. On average, African countries are losing 2-5% of GDP and many are diverting up to 9% of their budgets responding to climate extremes.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the cost of adaptation is estimated to range from US$ 30-50 billion annually over the next decade, or 2-3% of the region’s Gross Domestic Product, says the WMO State of the Climate in Africa 2023 report.
Public Outcry Against ‘The Goat Life’ which Depicts Serious Rights Violations
3 September 2024 — This month, Netflix released “The Goat Life,” a movie centered on the experiences of an Indian migrant worker, Najeeb Muhammed, who worked in Saudi Arabia in the early 1990s and, after being stranded in the desert, was forced to work as a goat herder.
It is based on the 2008 bestselling book, “Goat Days,” which was written by another migrant worker and author under the pen name Benyamin.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 