(UN News)* — UN-mandated independent investigators have uncovered “systematic torture” in Myanmar’s military-run detention facilities – including beatings, electric shocks, strangulations and gang rape – a pattern of atrocities which is intensifying across the country.
In its annual reportreleased on Tuesday [], the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar(IIMM) said it had made “important progress” documenting crimes and identifying those responsible, including commanders of security forces overseeing detention facilities.
Myanmar descended into civil war following the military coup of February 2021 and the detention of civilian leaders, including President Win Myint and State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
At 22 pages, the current draft text contains 32 draft articles which will be discussed in fine detail, according to the UN. The text is designed to shape the future instrument and will serve as a starting point for negotiations. For 10 days from 5-14 August, delegations from 179 countries will pore over the text as they meet at UN Geneva, alongside more than 1,900 other participants from 618 observer organizations including scientists, environmentalists and industry representatives.
Plastic garbage is offloaded from a fishing boat on the east coast of China. Credit: UNEP/Justin Jin
GENEVA, Aug 12 2025 (IPS)** –– The future plastics treatyis being sold as potentially an environmental breakthrough. But in its current form during this week’s negotiations, it contains adangerous flawthat must be addressed before the final text is agreed — or it could undercut the world’s most widely ratified health treaty, the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), and hand the tobacco industry the tools to expand its market under the banner of environmental action.
Land degradation and drought are fueling a hidden health crisis – but we still have time to act. When we speak of desertification or drought, we often think of dry rivers, cracked soil and failed harvests.
But there is another, less visible toll – one that strikes deep into the lungs, hearts and daily lives of the world’s most vulnerable people.
A new policy brief from the UNCCD reveals the far-reaching health impacts of land degradation and drought — and it delivers a stark message: the health of the planet and the health of people are inseparable.
Around the world, land is deteriorating at an alarming pace.
Between 2015 and 2019, more than 100 million hectares of productive land were lost each year. That’s an area roughly the size of Egypt — gone annually.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Aug 12 2025 (IPS)* –– The accumulation of still growing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in an increasingly unequal world is accelerating planetary heating. It is also worsening disparities, especially between the rich and others, both nationally and internationally.
Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Unequal emissions In our grossly unequal world, international disparities account for two-thirds of overall income inequalities.
National income aggregates and averages can mislead by obscuring significant disparities within countries.
Meanwhile, GHG emissions continue to grow as their accumulation accelerates planetary heating.
Emissions disparities within nations now account for almost two-thirds of worldwide emissions inequality, nearly doubling from slightly over a third in 1990.
The bottom halves of rich country populations are already at – or close to – the 2030 per capita carbon dioxide equivalent emission targets set by their governments. Yet North America’s wealthiest 10% or decile are the world’s biggest GHG emitters.
The sheer, unrelenting horror unfolding in Gaza is not unique in its scale of human suffering. Sudan has endured catastrophic famine for over a year, reaching the same “fifth stage of starvation” Gaza now tragically enters.
Every second of august, under the GENOCOST celebration , the Congolese community and its allies around the world come together to honor the memory of the victims of the Congolese genocide.
(UN News)* — UN Secretary-General António Guterres has condemned the killing of six Palestinian journalists in Gaza this past weekend, his Spokesman said on Monday [].
The reporters – five of whom worked for the Al Jazeera media network – were killed in a targeted Israeli strike in Gaza City the previous day.
“These latest killings highlight the extreme risks journalists continue to face when covering the ongoing war,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said during his regular media briefing from New York.
“The Secretary-General calls for an independent and impartial investigation into these latest killings.”
UNITED NATIONS, Aug 7 2025 (IPS)* –– The humanitarian situation in Haiti has deteriorated significantly in the past few weeks, with the United Nations (UN) underscoring a growing list of abuses committed by armed groups, including killings, kidnappings, and sexual violence.
Christiana, a mother of six, fled repeated waves of armed violence, first from her home in Morne Blanc, where her husband was killed in 2024, then from Mirebalais in March 2025, seeking safety in Boucan Carré. Credit: UNICEF/Herold Joseph
(UN News)* — In Africa’s Sahel region, deepening violence and poverty – driven by displacement, hunger and terrorism – are stripping women and girls of their right to safety, education and a viable future.
Risks to women and girls across this vast region are severe and systemic, as political instability, environmental collapse and a declining international presence take their toll.
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From abductions and child marriage to exclusion from schools and public life, their lives and opportunities are being steadily stripped away, Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, told ambassadors in the Security Council on Thursday [].
“In the Sahel, where the world’s gravest concerns converge, women and girls bear the brunt,” she said.
Paulo Benedito built his life around the sea. Born and raised in Quissanga, a small coastal town in northern Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, Paulo came from a long line of fishermen.
The ocean was more than a livelihood—it was a way of life passed down through generations.
Each morning, he would set out before sunrise in his wooden boat, returning hours later with enough fish to feed his family—and, if the catch was good, to sell at the market.
Without urgent donations, 1.3 million people risk losing food assistance.
Displaced by conflict in northeastern Nigeria, Iya and her large family barely survive with WFP support. Now, that assistance may dry up altogether. Photo: WFP/Arete/Nommiyid Chantu
On the good days, Iya and her husband are barely able to feed their large family. On the bad ones, their seven children go to bed hungry in the small mud-brick hut they call home.
In northeastern Nigeria’s Mafa displacement camp, where the family lives, August is shaping into a month of many bad days.
“The support we get isn’t enough,” says 45-year-old Iya of the World Food Programme (WFP) food assistance. As a conflict-displaced person, her last name is being withheld for her protection. “As a parent, it’s never enough.”
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 