18/03/2024
First Person: Southern Madagascar, Where Girls Are Sold into Marriage Before They Are Born
Human Wrongs Watch
(UN News)*, — Efforts are being made in the south of Madagascar to end a traditional but illegal practice in which girls are promised as a wife to older men, sometimes even before they are born.
The arranged marriage typically involves the exchange of a highly prized and culturally important Zebu cow for teenage girls as young as 13 years old.
Now two UN agencies UNICEF and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) are working together with the local authorities to educate women and also men, through sessions focusing on positive masculinity, about the dangers of the practice and how to treat women as equals.
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16/03/2024
After 13 Years of Conflict in Syria, almost 7.5 Million Children Are in Need of Humanitarian Assistance
Human Wrongs Watch
Prolonged exposure to conflict and deprivation taking a devastating long-term physical and mental toll on generation of children
UNICEF/UN0779763/BelalA boy stands by the remains of collapsed buildings in Jableh district, northwestern Syria
DAMASCUS/AMMAN 15 March 2024 (UNICEF)* – After thirteen years of conflict in Syria, almost 7.5 million children in the country are in need of humanitarian assistance – more than at any other time during the conflict.
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16/03/2024
Top United Nations Officials Condemn the Rising Tide of Anti-Muslim Hate
Human Wrongs Watch
(UN News)* — Amid a rising tide of anti-Muslim hate, top UN officials condemned the scourge on Friday [] as the General Assembly adopted a resolution to push back against it during commemorations marking the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
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The new resolution, tabled by Pakistan, calls for, among other things, concerted action to fight ongoing violence against Muslims and requests the UN Secretary-General to appoint a special envoy to combat Islamophobia.
The world body created the International Day through a resolution adopted following attacks on two mosques Christchurch, New Zealand, that left 51 people dead on this day in 2019.
Prior to adopting the new resolution, by a vote of 113 in favour to none against, with 44 abstentions, a divided Assembly rejected by a close margin two amendments proposed by a group of European nations.
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16/03/2024
Gaza: 23 Million Tonnes of Debris ‘Will Take Years to Clear’; Acute Malnutrition Doubles in a Month
Human Wrongs Watch
(UN News)* — The war in Gaza has left a staggering almost 23 millions tonnes of rubble and unexploded weapons scattered across the enclave, UN humanitarians said on Friday [].
15/03/2024
US Delivers Both Life –and Death– to a Devastated Gaza
Human Wrongs Watch
– The Biden administration’s sheer hypocrisy is reflected in its policy of dropping food packages into a devastated Gaza, while at the same time, it continues to arm Israel with missiles and heavy artillery to kill Palestinian civilians suffering hunger and starvation.
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Much of the Gaza Strip lies in ruins. Credit: UNRWA/Ashraf Amra. February 2024
As US Congressman Ro Khanna (Democrat of California) said last week: “You can’t have a policy of giving aid (to Palestinians) and giving Israel the weapons to bomb the food trucks at the same time.”
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15/03/2024
How the ‘Fight against Antisemitism’ Became a Shield for Israel’s Genocide
Human Wrongs Watch
By Jonathan Cook – TRANSCEND Media Service*
Western capitals no longer treat Israel like a state, a political actor capable of slaughtering children, but rather as a sacred cause. So any opposition has to be a blasphemy.
7 Mar 2024 – If you read the establishment media, you might conclude that a serious battle is being waged by Israel and its most ardent supporters to tackle an apparent new wave of antisemitism in the West.
Jonathan Cook
In article after article, we are told how Israel and western Jewish leadership bodies are demanding our concern, and outrage, at a rise in anti-Jewish hate incidents.
Organisations such as the Community Security Trust in the UK and the Anti-Defamation League in the US produce lengthy reports on the relentless increase in antisemitism, especially since 7 October, and warn that action is urgently required.
Undoubtedly, there is a real threat of antisemitism and, as ever, it comes largely from the far right. Israel’s actions – and its false claim to be representing all Jews – only help to stoke it.
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15/03/2024
Haiti: World Food Programme ‘Will Be Forced to Stop Serving Hot Meals to Those Who Urgently Need Food as Soon as Next Week Due to Lack of Funds’
Human Wrongs Watch
(UN News)* — Out-of-control gang violence has created a humanitarian crisis in Haiti that the UN aims to help alleviate with the creation of an airbridge with the neighbouring Dominican Republic.
15/03/2024
Waves of Violence Have Displaced More Than 15,000 Haitians in Just a Week – “Port-au-Prince Is Under Siege”
Human Wrongs Watch
(UN News)* — Waves of violence have displaced more than 15,000 Haitians in just a week amid ongoing looting at the country’s main port, according to the latest report from the UN agency for migration, as the Security Council on Monday [] strongly condemned “destabilizing” criminal activity by armed gangs ravaging the Caribbean nation.
Council members urged the armed gangs to “immediately cease their destabilizing actions” and reiterated the call for the “perpetrators of these abhorrent acts to be brought to justice”, according to a statement issued following a closed-door briefing last week by the Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of the UN Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH).
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13/03/2024
‘Haiti Is on the Edge of a Devastating Hunger Crisis…’
Human Wrongs Watch
World Food Programme scrambles to respond to hunger crisis in Haiti amid funding crunch as country teeters on the brink
Photo: WFP/Antoine Vallas
PORT-AU-PRINCE, (WFP)* -– The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has on 12 March 2024 warned that Haiti is on the edge of a devastating hunger crisis, with humanitarian operations at risk of grinding to a halt, as rampant insecurity limits access to communities and donor funding dries up.
As fighting raging across the capital, WFP has been able to reach almost 300,000 people in the first ten days of March, delivering vital hot meals, food distributions, mobile money transfers and meals in schools. read more »
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 