'Unseen' News and Views
(UN News)* — Insecurity and violence increased rapidly in the occupied West Bank over the last month, punctuated by one of the most intensive Israeli military operations in nearly two decades, the Security Council heard on Thursday [].
“This deterioration is taking place alongside ongoing unilateral steps that undermine a two-State solution, the absence of a peace process and the continuing economic challenges facing Palestinians and the Palestinian Authority (PA),” said Khaled Khiari, Assistant Secretary-General for Middle East, briefing ambassadors.
The United Kingdom parliament has passed a bill inconsistent with the country’s obligations under international human rights and refugee law that could have profound consequences for people seeking international protection, warned the UN rights chief and the head of refugee agency UNHCR on Tuesday [17 July 2023].
Havana, Cuba, 5 July 2023 (WMO)* – Extreme weather and climate shocks are becoming more acute in Latin America and the Caribbean, as the long-term warming trend and sea level rise accelerate, according to a new report from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Temperatures over the past 30 years have warmed an average 0.2° Celsius per decade – the highest rate on record, according to the State of the Climate in Latin America and the Caribbean 2022 report. It highlights a vicious cycle of of spiraling impacts on countries and local communities.
(UN News)* — Low women’s empowerment and large gender gaps are commonplace in many parts of the world, the UN’s lead agencies on gender equality and international development said in a new report published on Tuesday [].
Out of 114 countries studied, none has achieved full gender parity, the report by UN Women and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) has revealed.
Moreover, fewer than one per cent of women and girls globally live in a country with both high women’s empowerment and a small gender gap in areas such as health and education.
(UN News)* — Nearly 200,000 people were displaced by fighting inside Sudan over the past week, the UN reported on Tuesday [], citing new figures released by the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
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Overall, more than 2.6 million people have been internally displaced since the start of the conflict on 15 April.
Meanwhile, more than 730,000 people have fled Sudan for neighbouring countries, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR.
(UN News)* — Indigenous Peoples have the ancestral wisdom to guide humanity towards a more sustainable use of the Earth’s resources, yet they are systematically discriminated against and excluded, UN rights chief Volker Türk warned on Monday [17 July 2023].
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© UNDP Peru | Indigenous communities in Peru are growing organic coffee to boost their livelihoods.
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He was speaking in Geneva at the annual meeting on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, referencing in-depth conversations he had had in recent months with Indigenous representatives during missions to Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Kenya.
“Standing army?”, the diplomat asked with mock surprise, and remarked perhaps half-jokingly, “We don’t even have a sitting army.”
6 Jul 2023 – Among the comments concerning the previous blog, some readers have questioned the following statement:
“In our times simple colonialism has been replaced by neo-colonialism. . . . economic sanctions and unbridled exploitation carried out by Europe and North America against the countries of the Global South.”
Dr. David Adams
The question of sanctions was dealt with in the blog published the preceding month: “The Hypocrisy of Economic Sanctions”.
This month I will deal with the question of “unbridled exploitation.”
You are probably aware of the fact that the mineral and agricultural resources of the countries of Africa and Latin America are exploited by big corporations based in Europe and North America.
You may believe that the profits extracted from the South are balanced by humanitarian aid that is given to these countries by the North.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 