'Unseen' News and Views
(UN News)* — A UN probe into the Israeli military’s bombing of Gaza has pointed to the laws of war being “consistently violated” with regard to the use of hugely powerful bombs and an alleged lack of distinction between combatants and civilians, the Organization’s human rights chief said on Wednesday [].
To all the people of Gaza I send you my deepest love and sympathy on the death of your beloved family and friends who have been murdered by the Israeli military in its ongoing war on Gaza.
I also send my deepest sympathy to all the many thousands of Palestinians who have been injured and maimed, many of whom have not been able to access medical help due to the killing of medical staff and bombing by Israel of many hospitals.
I cannot begin to understand the depth of your pain on the loss of those you love. I can only say ‘I am sorry – please forgive me that I did not do enough to help stop this madness of military violence which cruelly took away the ones you love.’
Geneva/ Port-au-Prince, 18 June 2024 (IOM)* – Nearly 580,000 people are internally displaced across Haiti, a 60 per cent increase since March, according to the latest data from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the country.
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(UN News)* — A conference focused on small arms and light weapons is taking place at a “difficult and dangerous moment for humanity,” according to the UN Chief António Guterres.
Delivering remarks in New York on behalf of the Secretary-General at a meeting aimed at eradicating the illicit trade in small arms, Izumi Nakamitsu, the head of the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs, warned on Tuesday [] that military expenditures continue to rise across the globe.
New conflicts are placing millions of people in the line of fire, and small arms and light weapons play a major role in these conflicts, she said.
17 June 2024 — In 2023, the nine nuclear-armed states spent a combined total of $91,393,404,739 on their arsenals – equivalent to $2,898 a second. ICAN’s latest report “Surge: 2023 Global nuclear weapons spending” shows $10.7 billion more was spent on nuclear weapons in 2023 than in 2022.
– Since 2008, farmland acquisitions have doubled prices worldwide, squeezing family farmers and other poor rural communities. Such land grabs are worsening inequality, poverty, and food insecurity.
Squeezing land and farmers
A new IPES-Food report highlights land grabs (including for ostensibly ‘green’ purposes), the financial means used, and some significant implications.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Powerful governments, financiers, speculators, and agribusinesses are opportunistically gaining control of more cultivable land.
The report notes the 2007-08 food price spike and financial crash catalysed more land acquisitions.
Quantitative easing and financialization after the 2008 global financial crisis enabled even more land grabs. Investors, agri-food companies, and even sovereign wealth funds have obtained farmland worldwide.
Agribusinesses and other investors want land to make more profits, urging governments to enable takeovers. Cultivable land is being used for cash crops, natural resource extraction, mining, real property and infrastructure development, and ‘green’ projects, including biofuels.
Rome (IFAD)* -– In celebration of the International Day of Family Remittances (IDFR) on 16 June, the G20’s Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) has on 14 June 2024 unveiled a new report that provides evidence of the transformative impact of digital remittances, as a driver of financial inclusion and poverty reduction worldwide.
© IFAD/Purnima Shrestha
Despite persistent gender gaps, the hard-earned money sent back home by migrant workers remains a vital lifeline for over 800 million people, particularly for women and vulnerable populations.
(United Nations)* — It is projected that by 2030 more than US$ 5 trillion will have been sent home by migrants to low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), with much of this money going directly to rural areas where 80 percent of the world’s poor live, facing food shortages and the impacts of climate change.
(UN News)* — The global fight to tackle female genital mutilation (FGM) is being undermined by the movement of some girls across national borders and beyond to undergo the procedure, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) warned in a new report published on Friday [14 June 2024].
© UNICEF/Mulugeta Ayene | The authorities in Ethiopia stopped the circumcision of a young girl after they were alerted.
Although many States have intensified their efforts towards eradication, the practice continues across the world in part due to “the clandestine nature of cross-border and transnational FGM,” it said.
“Female genital mutilation is part of a continuum of gender-based violence and has no place in a human rights-respecting universe,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 