(UN News)* —Conflict in Yemen entered its 10th year on Monday [], as UN humanitarians issued a warning that over half the country’s populations are in desperate need of aid.
14 March 2024 (UNICEF)* — Most people know that you can’t survive without water. But the truth is slightly more nuanced. You need more than just water – you need SAFE water.
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UNICEF/UN0211984/Noorani
You also need safe toilets to keep the environment clean, and as well as soap and water to stop the spread of disease.
Find out more about why safe water, sanitation and hygiene are so important:
(UN News)* — Israeli authorities informed the United Nations on Sunday [] that it will no longer approve the passage of any UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, food convoys into northern Gaza.
“As of today, UNRWA, the main lifeline for Palestine refugees, is denied from providing lifesaving assistance to northern Gaza,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini wrote in a social media post on X.
He called the decision “outrageous”, saying it was made to intentionally obstruct lifesaving aid deliveries during a man-made famine in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.
(UN News)* — The situation in the gang-ravaged capital of Haiti has gone from worrying to “extremely alarming” as conditions in Port-au-Prince continue to worsen amid growing hunger and serious shortages in hospitals to treat gunshot victims, said the UN Humanitarian Coordinator there on Thursday [].
“It’s important we don’t let the violence spill over from the capital into the country,” said Ulrika Richardson, briefing journalists at UN Headquarters via videolink from Haiti.
On March 21, the 193-member UN General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution—the first ever — on the promotion of “safe, secure and trustworthy” artificial intelligence (AI) systems that will also benefit “sustainable development for all”. Adopting a United States-led draft resolution, without a vote, the Assembly also highlighted the respect, protection and promotion of human rights in the design, development, deployment and the use of AI. The text was “co-sponsored” or backed by more than 120 other Member States
Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 25 2024 (IPS)* – Speaking at the third Summit for Democracy in South Korea last week, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that a malicious “flood” of disinformation is threatening the world’s democracies—triggered in part by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).
GENEVA (UN Human Rights) 22 March 2024 – UN experts* today expressed alarm about increasing reports of trafficking in persons, especially women and girls, for purposes of sexual exploitation and sexual slavery, child and forced marriage, and the recruitment of boys for participation in hostilities in Sudan, against the backdrop of the deteriorating humanitarian crisis in the country that has caused an unprecedented mass displacement of over 9 million people.
Access to support for victims and survivors has reportedly deteriorated since December 2023, eight months after the outbreak of conflict between Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in April 2023, the experts said.
Geneva, 22 March 2024 (IOM)* — The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is profoundly shocked and alarmed by the discovery of at least 65 migrants’ bodies in a mass grave in Southwest Libya.
The circumstance of their death and nationalities remains unknown, but it is believed that they died in the process of being smuggled through the desert.
(UN News)* —Amid reports of ongoing bombardment across Gaza on Friday [], UN humanitarians highlighted “shocking levels of disease and hunger” after visiting an overwhelmed hospital in the north of the enclave.
The UN’s top aid official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Jamie McGoldrick, reached Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia on Thursday, where children with the most severe and life-threatening hunger are being treated at a new World Health Organization (WHO)-supported specialised feeding facility.
New estimates show a loss of 507,000 jobs to date, shedding light on how the disruptions to economic life have led to unprecedented losses in employment and livelihoods across the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
BEIRUT (ILO)* –Some 507,000 jobs have been lost across the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) as of the end of January 2024 due to the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, according to new estimates issued by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS).
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, Mar 19 2024 (IPS)* –– This year more than half the world’s population has the chance to go to the polls. That might make it look like the most democratic year ever, but the reality is more troubling.
Too many of those elections won’t give people a real say and won’t offer any opportunity for change.
Credit: Luis Acosta/AFP via Getty Images
2024’s bumper election year comes as a record number of countries are sliding towards authoritarianism, and global advances in democratisation achieved over more than three decades have been all but wiped out.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 